On this year's trip, she brought soil from Luoyang, once an ancient capital, to Zhuge Liang's tomb to honor his long-held wish to return there.

Fan is part of a broader trend in which young people are reimagining how to connect with the past.

Online posts show visitors leaving ibuprofen at the tomb of Cao Cao to "relieve" his well-known headaches, bringing wine to the Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet Li Bai, or placing snacks at the grave of the young general Huo Qubing, who died at 24.

For Zhang Chengxiaoya, 19, repeated trips from Wuhan to Jingzhou, both in Hubei province, to visit the tomb of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) reformer Zhang Juzheng have come to feel like meeting an old friend. This year, she wrote a letter that read like an everyday conversation. "He's no longer just a figure in a textbook," she said.