Satellite pics show crowds at China crematoriums

A funeral home in Tongzhou, on the outskirts of Beijing, appears to have built a new parking area, according to imagery captured by Maxar on Dec 24. Pic/Maxar Technologies

The imagery captured by Maxar Technologies showed an uptick in activity at funeral homes across six different cities of China. Satellite images of a number of Chinese cities have captured crowding at crematoriums and funeral homes, amid the Covid surge across the country after Beijing lifted severe pandemic restrictions, reported The Washington Post.

An overwhelmed funeral home in Chengdu, stopped offering memorial services, budgeting just two minutes for each family to say goodbye to loved ones before cremation. A funeral parlour on the outskirts of Beijing quickly cleared space for a new parking lot. Scalpers in Shanghai sold places in line at funeral homes for $300 a pop to grieving relatives trying to get cremation slots, reported The Washington Post.

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The imagery captured by Maxar Technologies showed an uptick in activity at funeral homes across six different cities, from Beijing in the north to Nanjing in the east, to Chengdu and Kunming in the southwest. Social media posts, too, revealed long wait times and overwhelmed staff at additional facilities. "I have worked here for six years and it has never been this busy," said a receptionist at the Jiangnan Funeral Home in Chongqing, describing long lines of cars waiting to get into the facility during the days just before and after Christmas.

"The freezers were full and all eight incinerators were operating 24/7. The phone has basically not stopped ringing," she said. Such is the demand that at least four funeral homes contacted by The Washington Post have stopped allowing memorial services and offer only cremation services and storage, an indication that majority of people at these facilities were there to process recently dead loved ones.

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