In China, corpses are bearing the brunt of inflation, flats have become graveyards.

Beijing: Imagine you are living in a flat and no one lives in the neighboring house, only a picture of a dead person is hung, his ashes are kept and a red light is visible from the closed window. This is not a scene from a horror movie but the reality of Chinese apartments. Here, even after death, the dead body of a person is facing the brunt of inflation. Funeral expenses in China are so high that people are buying flats and preserving the ashes and bones of their ancestors there. Now, Xi Jinping’s government has banned this, which has created panic in the entire country.

In many areas of China, apartments have been found with their windows always sealed and curtains never drawn. According to media reports, when neighbors peeked into these homes, they discovered a terrifying sight. Candles burned in the center of the rooms, and a box of ashes was placed in front of a black photograph. To avoid the high-priced cemeteries, people were turning empty apartments in these remote areas into “houses of bones.”

In China, the journey after death has also become extremely expensive. According to a survey, the cost of a funeral in 2020 was nearly half the average annual salary. Meanwhile, China’s real estate market has plummeted, making apartments outside the city extremely cheap. People have calculated that buying a small apartment is better than taking up space in a government cemetery.

Following new regulations that came into effect on Monday, it is now illegal to store ashes in residential areas. China’s cabinet has clarified that human remains can only be buried or interred in designated government cemeteries. The government has also stated that homes will absolutely not be used as such “final resting places.”

In China, the birth rate is declining and deaths are rising, leading to skyrocketing demand for cemeteries. Lack of transparency and fraud in funeral prices have crippled the public. Since 2020, China’s major real estate companies have been deeply indebted, leaving many housing projects vacant and prices plummeting.