Why Are Funerals in Beijing So Expensive?
A funeral anywhere can leave some expenses no one wants to deal with. With the embalming, caskets, flowers, and funeral service, it's bound to leave a dent in anyone's wallet. But in Beijing, one bill for a morgue stay is stirring up issues with the high prices of funeral services here.
A recent report by Beijing News Radio sheds light on the controversy, with the story of a certain Mr. Deng, who this February arranged for his deceased wife's body to be kept for three days at Peking University Third Hospital's morgue while arranging for cremation. After the affair, Deng was shocked to discover a bill for over RMB 38,000 waiting for him.
A look at the receipt Deng received points to a few odd fees.
The receipt of the funeral fees
In Chinese culture, bathing the dead is important as it's believed it'll ensure a peaceful afterlife. You want a decent bath for your loved ones? That'll be RMB 5990. What about a proper send off to say goodbye? That's another RMB 1500 for people to move the box that contains your loved ones' bodies to be cremated.
Plus, the hospital listed a fee for RMB 600 for what they termed "meal services", which is a bit odd considering the dead can't eat. "Put all the other charges aside, I just really don't understand what kinds of food they were feeding dead people. It doesn't make any sense at all!" Deng said.
Those flowers can cost you a fortune
There's also the option to view the body before cremation, and you can throw flower arrangements in for the occassion, but it'll cost you. A single flower basket costs RMB 2400, while if you want flowers laid on your loved one's grave following cremation, that'll be another RMB 3800. If you want specific flowers, like 压灵花 yā líng huā, which is believed to calm dead souls, it'll cost around RMB 400.
Deng told Beijing News Radio that the total bill "is even more than what my wife could earn for an entire year when she was alive!"
The viewing room to honor the dead
Another Beijing resident surnamed Zheng, who was also interviewed by Beijing News Radio, said that the hospital informed her she'd have to pay for about RMB 5990 for a service titled "be grateful and pay filial respect to your parents." "I have no idea what this fee is even about," Zheng said.
"At that time, they had to take my mother-in-law out of the hospital morgue and into a casket. It was all underground and they traveled less than 100 meters, but they charged us RMB 1200, and the only special thing they did was put a golden carpet on the floor.”
So why do funeral services charge people such expensive fees? Well, there is an old saying in China that goes like this: The dead are the most valuable. The funeral industry certainly wouldn't let go of such a perfect opportunity to cash in on the dead.
Even though many family members find the charges to be unreasonably high, they are still more than willing to spend money for their beloved ones a final time to let them rest in peace. And if you don't want to spend money on the dead, well, you will be deemed as being disrespectful to your deceased loved ones.
Funeral service providers exploit this mindset, using it to bring in as big a profit as possible. And it's even spilled over into cemetary plots.
For instance, in recent years, the price of a cemetery plot has been rising in Beijing. Take Fenghuangshan Cemetery, one of the most well-known cemeteries in Changping, for example. An average cemetery plot there can cost anywhere between RMB 60,000 and RMB 100,000. Such sky-high prices would leave an average Chinese household in a dire financial situation.
Average costs of funerals in Beijing are pretty high.
Chinese traditions honoring the dead are strong and will never go away. But is it fair for funeral services to exploit their grief and make such a profit out of it? "My grandma lived a very frugal life and she never spent money on extravagant things," one Beijinger said.
All of which is to say, we guess it costs a lot to live, but potentially even a lot more to die.
READ MORE
Want to Work at the Forbidden City? Get Your Master's First
Images: 上游新闻, 腾讯新闻
advertisement
Top Stories This WeekBeijingers Are Buzzing About