"The fun-loving pensioner looked chuffed to bits as pretend mourners bowed their heads in prayer at his feet — while he sat dressed in traditional Chinese burial clothes next to a table of refreshment," South China Morning Post reported.
Only 20 of the 50 family members he invited showed up to the faux funeral of Zhang Deyang, hundreds of local villagers showed up instead.
The man spent 16,000 yuan ($2450) on the funeral, also pretending to marry a dead woman, as Chinese tradition considers it bad luck to die without a spouse, according to SCMP.
During the ceremony, the man also crawled into a fake grave, which he had erected for himself in 2008.