Cemeteries running out of burial plots
April 28, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CEMETERIES in Minhang are trying to encourage more eco-friendly ways of burying loved ones by urging people to forsake interment in the earth in favor of ashes in an urn.
The idea isn't going down well with the public.
Zhuanqiao Cemetery, a municipal-owned graveyard, opened spaces for more than 400 wall urns, targeting lower-income families, in December 2010. Today, the ashes of only one person have been placed there.
The price for an urn is 2,000 yuan (US$322), compared with about 20,000-200,000 yuan for a burial site. However, with land being gobbled up by commercial and residential development and the population expanding, graves sites are harder to come by nowadays.
"The Chinese tradition of grave burials is deeply rooted, and many people would rather spend more money and get a proper place in the earth for their decreased relatives," said Wu Shaoqun, manager of the cemetery.
One woman living in Minhang's Xinzhuang area, who declined to be identified, said she would never consider putting the ashes of her ancestors at sea or under a tree or in a wall urn.
"I want them to have a spacious final resting place," she said. "Then I would feel very happy."
Grave burials are important in Chinese culture. People believe that burying urns with the ashes renders the souls of the deceased immortal. Burial is also considered a way of cherishing loved ones and honoring their memory.
But Minhang is running out of burial space. Land available for graveyards will disappear in the district in the next 10 years, according to Gu Xinmin, director of the Minhang funeral management division.
There are four cemeteries in the district, and together they have less than about 10 hectares left for burial plots, Gu said. Authorities have put a lid of 1.5 square meters for the urn of each deceased person. "We have to explore ways to provide more space," said Wu.
His Zhuanqiao Cemetery covers more than 4 hectares, and only about two-thirds of a hectare of land remains for burying urns.
To make itself "sustainable," the cemetery has worked out a 15-year plan for management of burial sites. It has put a ceiling of 333 square meters on the amount of land it will sell for burial plots every year.
The district's funeral authorities are urging people to bury the ashes of their ancestors at sea or under a tree or in wall urns.
To break down public resistance, incentives are being offered. Permanent residents of the district are eligible for a subsidy of 400 yuan if they choose a non-cemetery plot burial.
The idea isn't going down well with the public.
Zhuanqiao Cemetery, a municipal-owned graveyard, opened spaces for more than 400 wall urns, targeting lower-income families, in December 2010. Today, the ashes of only one person have been placed there.
The price for an urn is 2,000 yuan (US$322), compared with about 20,000-200,000 yuan for a burial site. However, with land being gobbled up by commercial and residential development and the population expanding, graves sites are harder to come by nowadays.
"The Chinese tradition of grave burials is deeply rooted, and many people would rather spend more money and get a proper place in the earth for their decreased relatives," said Wu Shaoqun, manager of the cemetery.
One woman living in Minhang's Xinzhuang area, who declined to be identified, said she would never consider putting the ashes of her ancestors at sea or under a tree or in a wall urn.
"I want them to have a spacious final resting place," she said. "Then I would feel very happy."
Grave burials are important in Chinese culture. People believe that burying urns with the ashes renders the souls of the deceased immortal. Burial is also considered a way of cherishing loved ones and honoring their memory.
But Minhang is running out of burial space. Land available for graveyards will disappear in the district in the next 10 years, according to Gu Xinmin, director of the Minhang funeral management division.
There are four cemeteries in the district, and together they have less than about 10 hectares left for burial plots, Gu said. Authorities have put a lid of 1.5 square meters for the urn of each deceased person. "We have to explore ways to provide more space," said Wu.
His Zhuanqiao Cemetery covers more than 4 hectares, and only about two-thirds of a hectare of land remains for burying urns.
To make itself "sustainable," the cemetery has worked out a 15-year plan for management of burial sites. It has put a ceiling of 333 square meters on the amount of land it will sell for burial plots every year.
The district's funeral authorities are urging people to bury the ashes of their ancestors at sea or under a tree or in wall urns.
To break down public resistance, incentives are being offered. Permanent residents of the district are eligible for a subsidy of 400 yuan if they choose a non-cemetery plot burial.
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