Where the living face rocketing costs to bury the dead
In places like Beijing where land is short, graves cost more per square metre than flats
People on the mainland are finding death as unaffordable as life as prices of urns and graves soar.
A funeral supplies store at Beijing's Babaoshan graveyard now charges between 4,100 and 12,300 yuan (HK$5,100 and HK$15,400), reported. One carved white jade urn fetched a whopping 119,850 yuan.
The store bought the urns for less than one-tenth the price, according to the paper, which sent an undercover reporter to work at the store. The shopowner charged over 100,000 yuan for a batch of 19 urns he bought for 7,320 yuan, the paper found.
Most people on the mainland cremate their family members and bury ashes in urns. But costs are even higher for those who seek to bury corpses.
"It cost about 6,500 yuan when my uncle's remains were buried," one man told China Central Television. "But when I buried my father in 2009, I paid 22,000 yuan for the tomb."
Someone like Niu would have to pay a lot more to bury a loved one now.
