A mortician, to many Chinese, can be both mysterious and awe-inspiring. Some hold the belief that "nothing really matters but death", which magnifies the mystique.

With that in mind, one may be surprised at meeting 29-year-old Dong Ziyi, an athletic, 1.83-meter-tall Beijing man with a winning smile and the deep, resonant voice of a professional host on a midnight radio program. He looks more like a college student about to play basketball than a mortician.

Dong, who always wears black suit at work, has been in the funeral business for eight years. He has designed and led more than 1,000 funerals and has personally greeted more than 100,000 guests.