Density in the Afterlife

Crowded cityscapes have nurtured the pragmatic spirit of Hong Kong people. People’s generosity towards life and death and their love for reality are also changing this city.

The Pokfulam Cemetery is managed by the Chinese Christian Church. It occupies an area of 933,925 square feet, which is divided into 12 sections. The most scenic areas on this hillside are Zone A, B and C.

Unlike a  public cemetery, the Pokfulam Cemetery is only for Christians. It’s built on a hillside,topped by a towering white cross that adds some solemnity to the tranquil cluster of headstones in the sunlight.

Christians believe a person’s death is the transfer of one life into another, a doorway into eternity.

A special feature of Pokfulam cemetery is that a large number of people close to Sun Yat-sen, the Father of China, and those involved with the Xinhai Revolution (1911) are buried there. Today, you can find everything is just the same as ordinary cemeteries. There are no grand memorials, just stray cats resting on benches and residents walking their dogs. This is perhaps the best conception of Sun Yat-sen’s idea of “the world is for the public”. 

In the aerial photo taken in the Pokfulam Cemetary, these chessboard-like rectangles are tombs built on a hill, with a long staircase leading to the top of the mountain.

Walking down the hill, opposite the only bus stop which gets people from the city center to the cemetery, is a florist that has been in business for many years. Besides white chrysanthemums and carnations which are most commonly used to pay tribute to the deceased, the brightly colored flowers, a symbol of celebration in Chinese tradition, are at odds with the atmosphere of sadness.

“We have no stereotypical taboos,” said the owner of the floral shop. “There is an old lady who buys a bouquet of red flowers every Sunday and places it at her husband’s grave, which seems to me to be quite a romantic thing.”

There is a drop of about 100 meters from the highest Zone A to the lowest Zone L of the Pokfulam Cemetery. Roads in each area are not fully connected, mourners have to walk far more steps.

.In traditional Chinese Feng Shui, building cemeteries on hillsides meant gathering “positive energy” while blocking the negative. But from an architectural point of view, cemeteries were built on hillsides to avoid rainwater, wind, and sand that could erode graves and tombstones.

Furthermore, according to Hong Kong Government Gazette, in the 1850s, the Hong Kong colonial government tried to enact an ordinance to regulate the depth at which Chinese coffins are buried in order to prevent rain from washing the shallow graves to the surface, causing the spread of plague.

From today’s point of view, the solid concrete cemetery is less vulnerable to be damaged, but the habit of building on the hills has persisted and kept causing some troubles.

“More than ten people have fallen and gotten injured here in the last year, most of them are elderly,” said a worker in the Pokfulam Cemetery who was painting the edges of the steps with yellow warning paint. “Because of the age of the cemetery, the families of the buried people are getting older. The steepness of the hills makes these warnings necessary.”

However, the cemetery location is not the only dilemma.

The Hong Kong government currently owns ten public cemeteries and eleven public columbaria. But most people still have to face the fact of having no place to be buried after death.

The Hong Kong Cemetery is just a stone’s throw from the bustling Happy Valley, with the busiest road and luxury hotels on the other side.

In the Hong Kong Cemetery, located in Happy Valley, the number of places available for burial is already limited. According to the Hong Kong government, cemeteries are now close to capacity and the remaining burial places are reserved for specific groups of the deceased.

If you want to get to Cheung Chau’s most famous attraction, Cheung Po Chai Cave, then the quickest way is through this huge cemetery, where there is a huge contrast between the peace and quiet and the bustle of the waterfront shopping streets.

The Cheung Chau Cemetery is no exception. The land conflicts are exacerbated after becoming a tourist attraction. The Hong Kong government allows only residents born and raised on the island to be buried in the cemetery to prevent outside residents from purchasing sea view graves on the island.

Residents on the island still have the opportunity to choose burial,  which is more space-consuming and complex than the cremation required in cities.

The shortage of cemeteries cannot be solved by the Hong Kong government simply by restricting burials. 

At present, the Hong Kong government has three types of measures. First, for graves that choose to be buried without cremation, they must be excavated and cremated after six years. Second, to build higher density columbaria and columbarium spaces in an attempt to change the funeral habits of the public. And third, to promote eco-burial methods, including sea burial.

The second option, for example, still requires the public to participate in a lottery conducted by the Government in order to obtain a permanent niche. In the past January, the government only added a total of 1,217 new niches. However, this is still not enough. With an aging population and the fifth wave of the epidemic in 2022, the number of deaths in Hong Kong rose to 62,100 last year.

St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery is built around the chapel which was first built in 1868. It can contain 23,000 graves but no more left so far.

Of course, there are also privately run cemeteries to choose from. For most people, however, having a choice does not mean having freedom.

Private cemeteries are mostly run by churches or social organizations. It can often be 10 to 50 times more expensive than public cemeteries.  In the case of Pokfulam Cemetery, its operator is the Chinese Christian Churches Union, which  requires that the buried person must be a Christian. In addition, if the buried person is not a member of the CCC, he or she will have to pay double the price. The price for a permanent place is $510,000, and there are renewal fees every 10 years after the first 20 years.

The requirements for the St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery are even more stringent, with only clergy members are allowed to be buried. As there is no more land left, new applications have been rare. Even when the former Bishop of Hong Kong died, the cemetery still needed to vacate a tomb of a clergyman before burying him.

Just next to the Tsuen Wan Cemetery stands one of the most famous properties in Tsuen Wan. According to an agency website, the price of HK$15,000 per square foot far exceeds the average in the New Territories.

According to government statistics, there are currently over 3 million Hong Kong residents living in public housing. Compared to the luxury apartments that cost more than $20 million, public housing obviously does not offer sea views or convenient transportation. On the contrary, for cost reasons, most of the public housing units are located in relatively inexpensive locations, so it is not uncommon to see them next to cemeteries.

“If I can live in public housing, then I don’t mind being neighbors with ancestors.” said the resident.

And this seems to be not only for the poor. Tung Shan Terrace is a villa complex a few hundred meters away from Hong Kong cemetery, where an article was posted on a Hong Kong internet forum claiming that the people who live here are either noble or wealthy.

In mainland, superstitutions says it is bad luck to live next to tombs. But in Hong Kong things just get entirely different.

According to Dixon Dai, a self-claimed Feng Shui Master in Hong Kong, it is located at the top of the “dragon’s vein” of the peak, which means it is a great place in Feng Shui.

The building in the middle left is not a residential or office building, but a building for the storage of cremains. Due to the shortage of land and high prices, these burials, which are only one-fifth the price, have gained favor.

Residential buildings can be found next to almost all cemeteries in Hong Kong. The symbiotic relationship between citizens and urban space has already become a Hong Kong custom.