Focus
Dead business thriving in suburb
By Wang Ru (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-13 10:17
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Ban on funerary products doesn't hinder shops selling them
Majuqiao town, in southwest Beijing's Tongzhou district, is home to the city's biggest "death care" market with more than 20 stores specializing in funerary products.
The town became famous last year when the municipal industrial and commerce bureau raided some of the stores, seizing more than 500 kg of joss paper and a large amount of paper-made funeral products.
According to the municipal funeral regulation, joss paper or "hell bank notes" and other related funeral products, which are traditionally burned as an offering, are banned "superstitious" products.
However the banned "superstitious" products were still available in Majuqiao this year, especially during the traditional Tomb-Sweeping Festival in early April.
One storekeeper said that during the holiday, which families use to honor the dead, joss paper sold well in her shop, as did paper-made mini villas and cars, which are also burned in traditional Chinese offering ceremonies.
A bundle of joss paper that reads "$1 billion" costs 30 yuan, a 50 centimeter-high paper villa with two "gold storehouses" is 50 yuan and a paper car is 100 yuan.
In another shop, bunches of joss paper and other paper funerary products sat piled up in a storeroom. The shop owner refused to give her name or say where she bought the items, but media have reported that making such paper products has become an important source of income for peasants nearby.
"At least it is a tradition. Many people still need these products," said another shop owner.
She said she was unaware that the products were banned.
"Over 20 retail funeral shops in downtown Beijing buy my products wholesale," she added.
The products in the shops are similar to the funeral products in supermarkets in Majuqiao, but are priced differently.
The municipal consumers' association warned this year that independent funeral shops often price their products unreasonably and swindle customers.
Urns and shrouds are the best-selling items in the shops. In one shop urns made from materials as diverse as wood, jade and marble sat on display. None had a price tag.
"The most expensive urn is about 20,000 yuan ($2930), because it's made of red sandalwood," said the store keeper, adding that it had been selling well in recent years.
"The annual rent of my shop is 90,000 yuan," she said.
Her whole family lives on earnings of the business, she added.
"I don't cheat customers like others do," said a shop owner surnamed Ren in another store selling banned funeral products, adding that the same supposedly expensive red sandalwood urns only cost 6000 yuan in her shop.
"Customers seldom try to bargain when they buy funeral products since that would be considered disrespectful to their dead family members and ancestors," Ren said.
Almost every shop owner told METRO that they don't have price tags on their products because it is a wholesale business.
"Some shops cheat customers from downtown and make huge profits," Ren said.
A type of urn sold for 600 yuan in Majuqiao cost as much as 3,000 yuan in a retail shops in downtown Beijing, leaving the downtown shop owner with a considerable profit.
