How Beijing is trying to curb the spiralling price of death in China
A lack of space in cities and an ageing population are pushing up the costs of laying the deceased to rest. Now the government is taking action
Dying can be an expensive business in China.
A shortage of space in big cities and an ageing population have combined to dramatically push up the cost of laying someone to rest.
Now the government has stepped in with new rules designed to curb the skyrocketing price of storing a loved one’s ashes after death. In some major cities, this has outpaced the growth in property prices.
The key change to existing rules is to limit the size of the small spaces known as “niches” where urns containing the ashes of the deceased are placed. The niches themselves are contained – often in their hundreds, or even thousands – within giant structures called columbariums, and remain the most popular choice for mainland Chinese as a final resting place.
It is a big social issue – the government has to carefully make plans to ensure that all the dead people will have a resting place
In developed cities like Shanghai, the cost of an average niche has jumped about 40 per cent since the first half of 2015 to more than 100,000 yuan (US$14,556) now. An official indicator that gauges home prices in 70 Chinese cities rose 23 per cent over the same period.