Global Times (China)
April 08 2011
Another Tomb-Sweeping Day, or Qingming, has passed. As the name suggests, it’s a time to pay respect to the beloved dead. The biggest wish from the living for the dead is “be at peace.”
But our ancestors would turn in their graves if they knew how the living were extracting fabulous profits from them.
The funeral industry in China has for years been blasted for its excessive profits, thanks to an effective monopoly.
Though the State price supervising authority stipulates a 50 percent to 100 percent markup for the industry, which sounds exceptionally high already, the actual markup is at least 150 percent. The practitioners virtually price their products or services at will, since they have no competitors.
Read the full article in the Global Times
NOTE: Global Times is a daily Chinese newspaper produced under the auspices of the official Chinese Communist Party newspaper, the People’s Daily, focusing on international issues.
