• Ban on storing ashes in empty apartments
• Law takes effect ahead of traditional grave-cleaning festival

China has announced a new law aimed at preventing citizens from keeping the ashes of their deceased relatives in empty apartments, a move intended to tackle rising cemetery costs and the scarcity of burial plots in cities.

The new funeral management legislation prohibits using residential apartments specifically to store ashes, as well as burying bodies or building graves outside public cemeteries.

The law takes effect Tuesday, just before the traditional Qingming grave-sweeping festival, during which Chinese people honor their ancestors.

Using apartments for this purpose, known as “guhui fang” or bone ash apartments, has become more common amid rapid urbanization and an aging population, driving up demand and prices for cemetery plots.

Empty apartments are often converted into ritual spaces, with urns arranged by generation and decorated with candles and red lights, creating temporary family shrines.

China tops global funeral expenses after Japan, according to a 2020 survey. Meanwhile, property prices fell 40% between 2021 and 2025, partly due to President Xi Jinping’s campaign emphasizing that “properties are for living, not speculation,” aiming to curb market excesses.

Most Chinese cemeteries grant only 20-year leases, while residential properties come with 70-year government-backed usage rights, leading many to view apartments as a more valuable option for storing ashes.

The ban sparked wide social media attention, with a related hashtag viewed over 7 million times on Weibo, as users questioned the law’s practicality. “Who will monitor every apartment? Or will they put a GPS tracker on each urn?” one asked. “Even at 90% off, cemetery plots are still too expensive,” another commented.

China faces challenges with a growing elderly population, recording 11.3 million deaths in 2025 compared to 9.8 million in 2015, while births totaled only 7.9 million.

To address limited land and rising burial numbers, authorities in major cities like Shanghai support eco-friendly options, including deep-ground burial or sea burial of ashes.

In 2025, sea burials in Shanghai hit a record high, surpassing 10,000 cases for the first time.