With people in China breaking out their brooms this weekend to get a jump on the upcoming Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, what's grabbing people's attention isn't the mass migration to cemeteries, but the land people will be standing on.

Soaring prices for increasingly scarce burial plots are raising eyebrows across the country.

Days before Tomb Sweeping Day, this cemetery in northeastern Jilin Province sees a drastic increase of visitors.

It has also become a place for sales promotion campaigns for tombs.

Tomb Salesperson, Jinlin Province, said, "The price of our tombs starts from 180 thousand yuan, but it's only one square meter. An extra square meter costs 68 thousand. So this 5-square-meter tomb will cost some 400 thousand yuan."

With this money, one could buy a 70-square-meter apartment in Jilin, according to local real estate prices in March.

The southern province of Guangdong is experiencing the same situation. With the cost of land in its capital Guanzhou already more than most can afford, burial space is quickly becoming the ultimate luxury for the dead.

Local Resident, Guangzhou, said, "A tomb in the city costs about 100 thousand yuan, and it doesn't include additional fees like maintenance or the tombstones. We can't afford to die, literally."

The increase in prices is directly related to scarcity of land. The graveyard shortage is making burial plots another hot spot for investment, which further fuels the price hike.

Mrs. Wang, Jiangxi Province Resident, said, "We bought 11 tombs eight years ago. The cemetery had promised us 40 percent profits. But it didn't keep its promise to buy back those tombs."

Today, 60 percent of tombs in the cemetery are still empty, a result of the investment fever years ago.

And only investors can put tombs on the market, because tombs can only be bought with a death or cremation certification according to cemetery administration rules.

Go to Forum >>0 Comments