It's been a while since I posted anything here - I guess I am actually getting used to all the weird and wonderful things that make up daily living in Shanghai but I couldn't pass this up.Seems the Shanghai Funeral & Internment Association has indicated the city's funeral parlours and cemetaries have at least 10,000 burial urns containing someone's ashes that no one has claimed or visits.
The reason for this glut of ashes and urns is that according to Chinese tradition the best time to bury someone is on the winter solstice so you are out of luck if you die from December 24 onwards (they allow two or three days for the burial to take place). Your family has to wait a year to bury your remains and thus the problem!!!
There is a fee of 100 Yuan ($15.70)per year to hold the ashes till burial time which many people can't afford or they pay the fee and then simply forget about burying their relatives during the next winter solstice.
So if your looking for a nice Chinese burial urn, you might be able to pick one up at a great price at the local funeral parlour - you have to deal with the ashes and the ghosts that might be upset.
