Beijing Funeral Businesses Seek Supplies in Neighboring Provinces Amid Shortage

Workers in protective gear handle a coffin at Dongjiao Funeral Parlor, reportedly designated to handle COVID-19 fatalities, in Beijing on Dec. 19, 2022. Bloomberg via Getty Images

With deaths surging in major cities in China amid the recent flare-up of COVID, funeral-related businesses are lacking in supplies such as coffins, wreaths, tombstones, and graveclothes, according to owners.

People from Beijing are now looking for funeral-related items, such as coffins and burial garments, in neighboring provinces as they cannot find any in the capital. Coffin shops in China’s central Hebei Province and eastern Jiangsu Province have been operating overtime but still cannot satisfy the growing demand for these items.

Coffins Sold Out in Beijing: Shop Owner

Mr. Liu (pseudonym) is a coffin shop owner in Beijing. He told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 3 that there is a shortage of funeral goods, including coffins and burial garments, in Beijing due to the sudden spike in deaths at the same time that the regime abruptly scraped its zero-COVID measures.

According to Liu, all the coffin shops in Beijing have sold out of their products and have been searching for supplies in the neighboring Hebei Province.

“Workers have been working overtime, and they are now too tired and can’t put up with such workloads anymore,” Liu said.

Coffins are immediately sold out once they are made and now, the earliest available coffins are booked for Jan. 23, according to Liu.

Liu’s shop sells wood coffins, the price of which has more than doubled.

“These wood coffins were about 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan ($436 to $726) each [before the outbreak], but now they cost over 10,000 yuan ($1,453) each,” he said, adding that wood prices have also gone up due to the huge demand.

People gather around a hearse carrying the body of a loved one from an area outside a hospital fever clinic in Beijing, China, on Dec. 21, 2022. Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Coffin Makers Overloaded with Bookings

Manufacturers of coffins in Hebei and Jiangsu provinces have also not been able to meet the increasing demand.

When speaking with the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 3, Mr. Lin (pseudonym) said that there is a short supply of funeral items, including coffins, tombstones, burial garments, and wreaths.

Lin is the owner of a coffin company in Xuzhou City, China’s eastern Jiangsu Province.

According to Lin, orders for coffins have been scheduled until around Jan. 20. He said that there are many coffin-making enterprises in Jiangsu Province, but their yield can’t catch up with the increasing demand.

“Yesterday (Jan. 2), more than a dozen clients came to my house to ask for coffins. We didn’t have any coffins left, so we had to let them go,” Lin said.

According to Lin, the local demand for coffins is also huge. “The crematorium in Xuzhou cremated 200 to 300 bodies a day, and there were still long queues waiting. The furnaces keep burning night and day,” Lin said.

The owner of a coffin shop in Baoding City of Hebei Province said that there is a short supply of coffins in his city as well.

“There are too many deaths these days. There is no coffin available and wood is also running out of stock. All the local coffin shops have run out of stock,” the owner using an alias of Mr. Zhang told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times on Jan. 3.

He added that burial garments have also been out of stock in Hebei Province. “Everyone is calling to inquire if there are any burial garments available, but there isn’t any left in Hebei,” Zhang said.

Furnaces in Beijing Collapse Due to Non-Stop Burning

Liu, the owner of a coffin shop in Beijing, said that he is familiar with the actual situation in Beijing of overwhelmed crematories because of his business connections with the local crematories.

Liu said that Tongzhou Crematory, located in the eastern suburb of Beijing, has set a daily maximum of 150 bodies to be cremated.

“Tongzhou crematorium used to cremate about 40 bodies per day and it now burns over 100. There are long queues [of bodies] waiting [to be cremated],” Liu said, adding that it has become a normal practice in Beijing’s crematories to burn multiple corpses together.

“The Dongjiao Crematory in Chaoyang District keeps cremating bodies without stopping. Its furnaces collapsed due to the heavy workload. Families of the deceased started to complain because they were not able to retrieve the ashes of their loved ones,” Liu told The Epoch Times.

As the waiting time was too long in Beijing, some families took the bodies of the deceased to Hebei Province and Shandong Province for cremation, but they had to return with the bodies because funeral homes were also packed in the neighboring provinces.

Liu blasted the Chinese media for not reporting on the shortage.

“This is luckily in winter. If it were in summer, the corpses would decay and stink quickly. There isn’t a single media [in China] reporting on this,” Liu said angrily.

Zhao Fenghua and Hong Ning contributed to this report.