Wang Wei's fighter jet is numbered "81192". [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

Zhejiang Anxianyuan Cemetery in the outskirts of Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, was unusually crowded on April 1.

Most of the visitors were there to specifically mourn a hero pilot named Wang Wei, who served in the People's Liberation Army Navy and perished in the ocean after a midair collision between his fighter jet and a United States surveillance plane in the South China Sea on April 1, 2001.

A memorial funerary statue of Wang was erected deep in the cemetery on April 1, 2002 and has been constantly visited by people from all walks of life ever since. It has become a highly-revered patriotic education base in the city and beyond.

To mark the 20th anniversary of Wang's death, Zhejiang authorities hosted a special memorial at the cemetery this year, attended by Wang's family members, government officials, military personnel, schoolchildren, and more.

Wang was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang province in 1968 and joined the PLA after graduating from high school in 1986.

On the last day of his life, Wang was on duty tracing and monitoring a US surveillance plane that had entered China's Exclusive Economic Zone to the southeast of Hainan Island. Ignoring Wang's repeated warnings, the US plane rammed and destroyed his fighter jet, which was numbered "81192". Wang parachuted out but was missing and then assumed dead at the age of 33, after a 14-day large-scale search by the Chinese navy.

The number "81192" has shown up on many Chinese media outlets and social media platforms on April 1 every year for the past 20 years, paying tribute to the pilot most Chinese people won't and can't forget.