(Yicai Global) May 24 -- People from all over China have traveled to visit a memorial site of Yuan Longping, the "father of hybrid rice" who was 91 when he passed away on May 22 in central China’s Changsha.

Guests joined a ceremony to honor the memory of the winner of the Medal of the Republic, China’s highest order of honor. Yuan cultivated high-yielding rice varieties.

People were waiting in line to enter the venue.

A statue of Yuan on the campus of his alma mater, Southwest University, was surrounded by flowers.

Yuan Dingfu, a son of Yuan’s cousin, was one of the late academician's relatives who attended the ceremony. Yuan was born in a village in southeastern China's Jiangxi province.

The scientist's body was sent to a funeral parlor from Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, on May 22. The hearse passed by the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center where Yuan lived and worked.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi