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Q: If we die in China, can we be buried here?
Are we allowed to be buried here? If so, what are the approx. costs compared to being shipped back home?
I don't want to be cremated. Just buried, quickly and deep.
11 years 31 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
If I recall correctly, our bodies are shipped back to our home country if we don't have any family here. If no one pays to have your body shipped after a period of time, it is cremated and put into stinky tofu.
Xpat.John:
Oh, normal burial here (in cities) is very, very expensive due to lack of space. Cremation is the standard. In more rural areas it is common to cremate you, then stuff your remains in a large brownish-green pot, then they put the pot out in the woods. If you are ever hiking in the woods and you come across these pots, you will know whats inside them.
giadrosich:
So that's why stinky tofu is crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside! And stinky!!
Jeez, are you kidding, what if you wake up? No, I wanna be burnt to a crisp and have my ashes scattered over a bacon sandwich, as my father's were and my father's father's before him.
Why should i die here?!!!!!..............I had a dream that i will always live forever.....Wake up and still living so i guess my dream is true
If you have no one at home to receive your remains, then I suggest cremation. Cremation is much cheaper than actual burial. It is all in the planning so sort out the details beforehand with a trusted Chinese friend. (Kinda like writing a will or having life insurance, hehe... but in this case it's death insurance... ). Then have your trusted Chinese friend scatter your ashes in a cool place, like a sacred mountain or in the Yellow Sea.
I just want to die on A380 crash with a Big Bang. That is all...Basta....
Actually my dream death is to die on a plane crash somewhere at snow peaks; exactly at the age of 75. And that happens around 6 pm....
Don't really care after that....
I know a foreigner died in China because of heart attack...
very sorry for that...
it seems very difficult and trouble to take the body back to his home country...
God bless all of you , keep alive and live happily !!
As far as the city where I live goes, you have to be cremated. If you live in a country village apparently you can still be buried. Not sure if this applies everywhere.
Like I said the other day there was a guy on CCTV news who slept in his coffin just because he was gettin on a bit and was v thoughtful.....wanted to minimise the hassle for other people when he died. If you really want to be buried and not cremated you could follow in his footsteps. They might feel sorry for you and allow you to be buried. Good luck.
Well, I hope to be cremated and burred wherever I kick the bucket. Hauling a dead body or a jug of ashes to dispose of it in a particular place just seems like a waste of time and money. I seem to have read somewhere here that if an American dies in China, the Chinse will not cremate him without a letter from the US Embassy. And the US Embassy will not provide said letter even if the family of the deceased ask them to.
Well, I told my family that if they get too much hassle, to just forget my body and let the Chinese and the US Embassy sort it out, but to NOT spend any money transporting my dead body. If it ends up cremated, or a common grave, or served as dumplings, well, that is fine for me.
JungleLife:
Yeah, that would suck for our families if we die in the first place, but especially all the trouble with bringing us back home.
you would be cremated in china, only connected or important actually get a grave, if everybody in china was buried, they would have no land left for houses or farming, simply not enough land for this luxury, you get cremated and put at a grave site that looks like lego blocks piled high everywhere with your ashes, a skyscraper of death, some asshole's ashes above and somebody's ashes below you and beside you, basically the same as you lived in china. in a house of cards.
I heard it cost $12,000 to ship the body back to the U.S, It all came out after a DD Dragon teacher died.
embalm me and stick me in one of those amusement park Haunted Houses ! That would be fun! second choice feed me to a cool animal- shark, bear, tiger.
no way spend good $ to ship my remains to the States,,, what a waste of $ and what a burden on family for what? for nothing. gotta get past these antiquated 'burial rites'.
Getting buried in this place would be the worst trick this country could possibly play to me.
Scandinavian:
"come on, you'd make a great ingredient in some street food" ... too much, yeah I guess. I do feel the same way, but mainly because my parents are still alive, were they not, then I would let it be up to the missus.
you might not be able to get buried here, but probably parts of you would be removed and would remain behind whether you like it or not 
In 2007 one Indian died in Dongguan and was cremated because no one claimed for his body.
Last December one Indian died in Guangzhou hospital ( stomach cancer) .
It costs 60000 yuan to send the body back to India by air.
Thanks to our Indian embassy in Gunagzhou to help with money and all formalities .
Wow. I never even thought about that. I don't know the costs but I rather be cremated and mixed into soil. If I was in America, I'd request that an Apple tree be planted in the soil. I use to love hiding under my grandfather's giant apple tree as a kid, eating as many apples as I could stomach and then passing out under the shade.
i know that my family would want to get my body back home, regardless of expense.
As i would want the body of my loved ones close to where i could visit.
this is one area where my home country is still quite traditional.
apart from anything else, they would want to dance on my grave when they read my will 
