Kung Sau Funeral Service in Hong Kong sponsored the sisters' training. Its director, Lok Kar Keung, said it was necessary to have women attending female bodies.

'Many women don't want men to clean their bodies and dress them after their death. So the service by female employees is out of respect to women who have passed away,' Mr Lok said in Shanghai.

The sisters spent two weeks at the FIS learning about anatomy, embalming and cleaning corpses. They were also taught how to dress bodies and apply makeup to give them a pre-death appearance, a common practice on the mainland, before they are cremated or buried.

Wong Wai-yee, a former dresser for brides, said her first sight of a body was unnerving. 'The first dead body I saw here was an 89-year-old grandma, extremely thin and with her mouth left open wide. I felt very scared and ran out of the room,' she said.

Wong Wai-chun, a former housewife, was not afraid and was at her sister's side when they had to deal with corpses.

But both felt uncomfortable seeing bones, flesh and nerve tissue.

The sisters were instructed in cosmetology and learned how to apply makeup to match photos of the dead brought in by family members. The makeup process can take more than an hour and also involves hair styling.

After that, embalming fluids are injected into arteries in the neck, the process that proved most difficult for the women.

'I have learned how to use a scalpel to cut flesh, how to use an intravenous needle and how to stitch [a body],' Wong Wai-yee said.

She said she had lost nearly 5kg from stress during the stay in Shanghai but that she felt happy about her job.

Shanghai FIS director Yu Kangwei said the sisters were still at a junior level and that they needed further study in order to be able to deal with more complex cases, such as the bodies of victims of explosions or traffic accidents.