People attend a memorial meeting organized to resemble a gathering of old classmates. [Photo provided to China Daily] A growing number of people are organizing their own funerals, as Cao Chen reports from Shanghai. Despite the Chinese tradition that topics related to death are taboo, Zhu Shanchang has already arranged his funeral service and cemetery allocation. I've ordered multiple services, including burial caskets, urns, flowers and other cremation receptacles and memorial items, by signing a preneed funeral and burial contract with a funeral service company last year, the 82-year-old Shanghai resident said. Zhu made the decision after he caught a bad cold a few years ago, and coughed heavily and constantly for a long time. It took more than two weeks for him to recover properly, despite taking medication regularly. After that, I started to wonder where my body would lie after death, he said. I would not go back to my hometown in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, because no family members are there. Equally, I don't want to trouble my son and daughter-in-law in Shanghai when my time comes. Knowing their father's concern, last year, Zhu's son and daughter-in-law found the preneed funeral and burial service, which is provided by Fu Shou Yuan, a well-known funeral company. I feel at ease after ordering all the personalized services by myself, I deliberately chose a cemetery near my children's home to make it convenient if they want to visit. For Zhu, it's not taboo to manage his funeral and burial service ahead of time, but a part of one's life-planning for the future. Certainly, he is not the only person in China who has accepted this concept of post-death care via a preneed funeral and burial contract. According to statistics supplied by Fu Shou Yuan, more than 1,600 people in China have signed similar contracts with the company since it introduced the service in 2015. Moreover, 1,174 of those contracts were signed after the company completed its pilot program in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, last year. It officially launched the service in 16 locations, including Chongqing and the provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu. More than 500 of those who have signed up are from Shanghai. The service provides elderly people with the opportunity to design every detail of the funeral and burial process themselves, such as the shape or material of urns or styles of clothing, said Zhao Xiaohu, manager of the Shanghai branch of Fu Shou Yuan. It's a combination of tradition and new service experiences. According to Zhao, there is no time limit to the contract. Customers can choose different packages at the price of 6,800, 12,800 or 21,800 yuan ($1,100/$2,000/$3,470), based on their financial situation, he said. No extra money will be charged, regardless of any objective reasons in the future, including inflation and currency devaluation, once the contract has been signed. He Kaili, a Shanghai resident, has just bought the service for her 68-year-old father. Having overseen her mother's funeral a few weeks ago, the 38-year-old decided to sign the contract for her father to ease his burden. It was a tiring process, like mental and physical torture, to manage my mother's funeral and burial, while enduring the pain of losing her, she said. The contract (for her father) is such a relief, especially for an only child like me. It's like insurance for the elderly, the same as other financial products, except one only receives the benefits after death. plastic braceletsprintable wristbands24 wristbandsbat fidget spinneradjustable wristbandscustom made rubber bracelets
A finless porpoise is taken for a physical examination in Jiangxi province. The species has been classified as critically endangered. Recent research may provide good news about the endangered species, as Cheng Si and Liu Kun report from Wuhan. The rate of decline in the number of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River may have slowed in the past six years, according to experts in the field. Wang Ding, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Hydrobiology, said official statistics will not be released until March, but recent research may indicate positive steps in the conservation of the species, which is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. However, the river's environment is still deteriorating as a result of overexploitation of natural resources, while waterway regulations and water-related construction projects pose great threats to the porpoise's natural habitat, Wang said. His comments came at the end of a scientific survey of the porpoise that was launched in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Nov 11. The survey, conducted by CAS, reviewed the status of the species in the Yangtze River, its major tributaries and two lakes called Dongting and Poyang. Financed by the World Wide Fund for Nature and charities in Hubei, the 40-day survey covered 3,400 kilometers of water, from Wuchang, Hubei, to Shanghai. In 2006, a survey found that there were 1,800 finless porpoises in the wild. However, the number had fallen to 1,405 by 2012, indicating an annual rate of decline of 13.7 percent. The number is now estimated to be less than 1,000, and the ministry placed the species under the highest level of State protection in May. Freshwater species The finless porpoise, a member of the toothed whale family, is so named because it lacks a true dorsal fin. Females produce a calf once every two years, and have a gestation period of 10 to 11 months. The species makes both high-and low-frequency tones and uses ultrasound to communicate.
