Among the tens of thousands of Hongkongers who visited ancestors' graves for yesterday's Ching Ming Festival, some did not know the columbariums housing their relatives' ashes had been labelled illegal just days earlier.
On Friday the government placed eight private columbariums on its list of facilities that fail to comply with land or town planning laws, raising the number so listed to 74.
Ip Shu-wing, 20, whose father's ashes have been stored for almost a year in a temporary niche in Winslow Street, Hung Hom, one of the eight columbariums newly declared illegal, said: 'I did not know this place was listed as illegal, or receive any notification from the operator saying it was.'
Ip said her family was paying HK$300 a month to rent the niche, and they had no other choices. 'We have been waiting to move the ashes to a permanent government cemetery since my dad passed away, but there is no place available for him,' she said.
At the columbarium visited by Ip, an employee defended the operation by saying it provided families with a much needed service.
'The problem is not ours. If the government provided enough niches there would be no demand for our services,' she said, refusing to identify herself.
A public consultation on licensing private columbariums ended last month. Many respondents complained about the shortages of urn niches in the city and the dodgy practices of illegal columbariums.