In Hong Kong , finding the space to bury the dead is a Brobdingnagian ongoing problem . New , improper labor are springing up to meet need – yield us a coup d’oeil at the hereafter of inhumation in the hyper - dense cities .
Hong Kong is one of the densest metropolis in the world : Because it ’s confined to a coastal archipelago , it ’s been bunk out of outer space for centuries , including the satisfying footage needed for new burial situation . Throughout the city , cemeteries and burial vaults are so full you might wait class to guarantee the right to a tiny niche inside a cinerarium – the building in which hundreds of thousands of such niches store the ashes of the departed and make a memorial for the aliveness to chatter .
Aphoto essay by the AP ’s Kin Cheungthis weekend put the spotlight on the problem , especially as the government tries to alleviate the problem with Modern columbaria . Some of these propose structure are create tension between the developer and local , who point out that they pollution on holiday when relatives visit their loved ones ’ recess to combust offering .
image : Kin Cheung
Columbaria are vulgar throughout the humanity , especially in nation where cremation is the conventional configuration of burial , and they ’ve gotten higher - tech over the yr — like the one below , in Tokyo , where visitors use a especial access card to gain entry and programmed firing highlights specific niches .
Chris McGrath / Getty Images .
One columbarium purport in Hong Kong this class would expend similarly high - tech detail to make a space for enjoy 1 to remember the deceased inside an exist piece of infrastructure .
From Warehouse To Burial High-Rise
It ’s call the Island Memorial Centre . This plotted columbarium , which the AP suppose faces a bonny amount of public confrontation , is really being planned by a consignment and logistics operator calledKerry Logistics .
This year , the company proposed turning one of its storage warehouse – which seems to be located at 50 Ka Yip Street , harmonise to provision documentsandmeeting minute – into a huge , high - technical school columbarium fill with as many at 100,000 niches .
The warehouse today , which someday may become a 15 - story columbarium .
The columbary will be packed with applied science , where visitant can even immortalise their own memorials , grant toEJinsight :
First of all , the dovecote will look like an average commercial-grade construction . And alternatively of the place being filled with the common black - and - white picture show of the departed , the facility will make use of electronic filmdom to show the double which visitant can change by reversal on and off . William Ma Wing - kai , executive director of Kerry Logistics , tell cameras will be instal in front of the cinerarium ecological niche , allowing people to devote homage to their deceased loved I through the manipulation of a smartphone . The group will also put for ferries to ship visitors to and from the columbarium during the grave - sweeping peak time of year to facilitate the traffic pressure .
The current warehouse is reportedly not closemouthed enough to a port to make is valuable as a logistics hub — but as a memorial web site is could be very , very lucrative . TheJournal of Commerceestimates that if Kerry sell each niche at $ 9,000 a pop ( the market lead - rate ) , the company could make a 70 percent earnings .
“ It is one of the Group ’s tenacious - full term initiatives to enhance efficiency and productivity , thereby unlock the values of its assets and improving its return , ” the company wrote in aninvestor relations reportlast class . In other password , getting into the columbarium business is a impertinent long - term business organization move for the company .
50 Ka Yip Street
But the road from storage warehouse to burial web site has n’t been easy , as both the AP and the South China Morning Post report , with locals mobilize against the proposal based on the increase in traffic and pollution . Last month , Kerry unveil adownsized versionwith only 80,000 burial niches , instead . It ’s still ill-defined whether the projection will even get the go - ahead .
Overcrowding, Cemeteries, and Cities
The problem of Hong Kong are a saturated version of those confronting other cities throughout the world .
forget the dead is a rite that ’s been around nearly as long as civilization . But up until the past few year , the amount of space needed to bury our dead has never been a trouble . Why is it only emerge now ? Well , for one thing , because the bulk of the world ’s population began moving into cities 200 age ago , and it has n’t let up since . As modern cities have grown , veridical landed estate has induce more valuable , and there ’s simply no economical impetus for using any of it for low-spirited - income programs like cemeteries . Then there ’s the fact that the prominent generation in US story is aging – and looking to secure their own inhumation plots .
unlike countries have dealt with the problem in different ways : Someremove stay on once they ’ve decomposedand re - use the plots , as the BBC reported . In the UK , there ’s adebate emergingover whether grave web site should be “ leased ” for a modified amount of metre . In Norway , the problem has been aggravate by the fact thatbodies are n’t decay at all , due to a plastic covering commonly used to wrap the asleep . In 2013,the New York Timeshosted an online op - ed debate about what should be done . Natural burials , “ woodland ” cemetery , and other alternative were all propose .
In Hong Kong , this ubiquitous trouble is go to the re - annexation of industrial infrastructure , like Kerry ’s storage warehouse proposal . In an odd way , the projection parallels the gentrification of post - industrial waterfront neighborhoods all over the Earth – in life story or demise , skyrocket tangible demesne prices are changing the typeface of our metropolis .
Lead mental image : AP / Kin Cheung
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