Suzhou Tomb Purchase Restrictions (Photo : Getty Images)
The city of Suzhou, located in eastern China’s province of Jiangsu, impedes tomb purchases to people who do not have a local hukou or household registration, except for cases with “particular reasons.”
“Those who are not Suzhou citizens should get approval from the civil affairs authorities before they can buy a tomb here,” vice head of the civil affairs bureau of Suzhou Zhang Jihong said.
Some cemeteries in the city are already full because of the aging society and continuous urbanization. Many of the tombs in Suzhou cemeteries do not belong to locals.
According to the civil affairs bureau, the city is expecting more than 6 million people to come to visit tombs of deceased relatives on the Tomb Sweeping Day.
A large portion of the expected visitors is from Shanghai. The price of a tomb in Shanghai is almost twice the price in Suzhou. Many have also chosen Suzhou because Shanghai has no cemeteries open to the public for more than 30 years.
The policy restricting tomb purchases of non-Suzhou citizens was widely talked about over the Internet.
“After the house purchase restrictions for the living, officials are turning their eyes to the dead,” said Youming, a user on Sina Weibo.
“People can not only speculate on houses but also on tombs,” commented Xingzhiyin.
Zhang is hoping that the policy will be understood by the public. A similar policy was proposed by the city in 2004 but it was not fully executed. The policy has been repeated now that the cemeteries have only a few spaces left.
“But we are not keeping all the non-locals outside,” Zhang said.
“For instance, those whose spouses are buried in Suzhou can still use the same grave after they die,” he explained.
The appeals of young people who have Suzhou hukou and need tombs for their non-Suzhou parents are also taken into consideration by the civil affair authorities.
Suzhou officials hope that the public will accept the policy on tomb purchases.
