Hong Kong
Act Daily News
—
Starting at $53,000 for an area not a lot bigger than a shoebox, it’s a expensive place to remain, even in a metropolis famed for the world’s costliest property market.
But then the ornate white marble interiors of the 12 story Shan Sum tower in Hong Kong are usually not aimed toward your common kind of purchaser. They are meant for a extra discerning kind of buyer altogether, one searching for that little one thing additional: a resting spot for the afterlife.
This privately run high-rise columbarium, housed in a wavy, fan-shaped constructing designed by a German architect, is supposed to retailer the cremated stays of 23,000 folks. And it doesn’t come low cost.
In addition to its single urn entry models, niches that may retailer two urns can go for as much as $76,000 (HK$598,000), whereas household models that may home the ashes of as much as eight folks attain as a lot as $430,000 (HK$3.38 million).
With customary niches measuring about one cubic sq. foot, it might be argued {that a} spot on this tower is comparatively extra expensive than the town’s costliest property for the residing – a mansion within the extremely unique space of The Peak that in March attracted a bid of US$32,000 per sq. foot.
![Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615044311-01-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
But Shan Sum, which is tucked away in an previous industrial district of Kwai Chung shouldn’t be even Hong Kong’s costliest place for the lifeless.
According to Hong Kong’s Consumer Council, the costliest area of interest of all is at a temple-like advanced within the northern outskirts of Fanling. That auspicious resting spot goes for $660,000 (HK$5.2 million) – and that determine doesn’t even embrace the administration charges of at the least $25,000 (HK$200,000) to cowl the maintenance and surcharges.
Such an funding would possibly nonetheless not appear too dangerous, given the long-term horizon of the afterlife, however personal columbariums like Shan Sum are usually not providing a resting place for eternity. Ashes could be saved there solely in the course of the power’s personal license, which is issued by Hong Kong authorities. These licenses have a restrict of 10 years and might take years of inspections to acquire. Shan Sum’s runs by means of 2033.
Even so, at Shan Sum – whose title interprets to “benevolent heart” – it’s extra than simply the urn area you pay for.
Its architect Ulrich Kirchhoff advised Act Daily News there may be an accessible rooftop and winding balconies lined with pocket gardens for households visiting their ancestors, whereas a few fifth of the constructing’s space is open area.
![The wavy exterior of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615045035-04-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
It has additionally been designed with aesthetics in thoughts, with its wavy, high-rise profile meant to imitate conventional Chinese graveyards and their most well-liked location on mountainsides to draw good Feng Shui.
There are hints of modernity, too, corresponding to dehumidifiers and air-conditioning programs and even an app by means of which households pre-book a time slot to convey choices to deceased ancestors.
The tower is the brainchild of Margaret Zee, a septuagenarian businesswoman who made her fortune within the jewellery and actual property companies and now runs a charitable basis in her title.
Paying respect to the lifeless is vital in Chinese tradition, Zee advised Act Daily News, and many individuals are keen to go all out to honor the custom.
“Our loved ones’ last journey is not just so they can cross over to the afterlife, but it’s also for us who are left here on Earth to bid them farewell,” Zee stated. “It’s not only to lay them to rest, but to give peace to those they’ve departed from.”
Zee realized there was a scarcity of houses to honor the lifeless when she struggled to discover a place to carry a memorial for and bury her late husband in 2007 and she or he felt compelled to behave.
![Architect Ulrich Kirchhoff at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615044313-02-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
In Hong Kong, the identical mismatch of provide and demand that has pushed up actual property costs to nosebleed ranges additionally impacts columbariums.
Essentially, in a metropolis dwelling to greater than 7 million folks and among the world’s most densely populated neighborhoods, competitors for area is heating up – for each the residing and the lifeless.
While Hong Kong shouldn’t be a small place – its space of 1,110 sq. kilometers is about 1.4 instances the scale of New York City – its mountainous terrain makes a lot of its land unsuitable for growth.
With area at a premium, property builders have historically favored high-rise towers that – not in contrast to the Shan Sum constructing – can pack in as many plots as doable. As a consequence, the common dwelling dimension is simply 430 sq. ft, in response to the 2021 census, among the many tiniest on the earth, though common dwelling costs are north of one million {dollars}.
This squeeze on area continues within the afterlife, exacerbated by Hong Kong’s quickly getting older inhabitants. More than one in 5 Hong Kongers is over 65, in response to census information, and that quantity is projected to leap to multiple in three by 2069.
![Cemeteries in Hong Kong are running out of space.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615044314-03-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
Even although greater than 90% of Hong Kongers go for cremation, area to retailer their stays is working out. This is partly as a result of, fairly than scattering the ashes, historically minded Chinese favor a bodily place the place they will pay respects and provides choices to the lifeless.
With the town’s dying fee working at about 46,000 per yr (roughly double the capability of Shun Sum) previously decade urn capability has at instances struggled to maintain up.
There are at present just below 135,000 public niches obtainable in government-run amenities, the place a 20-year lease goes for about $300, however competitors for these is fierce and in recent times some households have reported ready years to get a spot.
The response by the federal government has been two-fold, boosting the variety of public amenities whereas additionally approving the licenses of 14 privately-run columbarium operators, together with Shan Sum, since 2017.
![The entrance of Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615045047-10-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
A spokesperson for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department advised Act Daily News that between 2020 and 2022, round 77,000 urns had been allotted a distinct segment “without the need to wait.” Another 4 new places to be accomplished by 2025 would supply an additional 167,000 models.
“There is a marked improvement in the supply of public niches over the past few years. As of now, the supply of public niches is adequate,” the spokesperson stated.
Still, as with many issues on this commercially-minded metropolis, the place the median month-to-month wage is simply US$2,400 however there are many billionaires (greater than 100, in response to Wealth X, an organization that tracks high-net-worth people), there are alternatives for these desirous to splash out on one thing slightly extra distinguished.
And that’s the place locations like Shan Sum actually are available in to their very own.
![Niche compartments to store urns at Shan Sum, a private columbarium tower in the Kwai Chung district of Hong Kong on June 2.](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/230615045041-06-hk-high-rise-cnn.jpg?c=16x9&q=h_720,w_1280,c_fill)
At the tower in Kwai Chung completely different flooring are devoted to completely different religions to go well with a variety of dying customs, stated Pan Tong, Zee’s son and the operational director of the constructing.
For occasion, he says, there are gentle and vibrant ethereal nooks designed to enchantment to Buddhists and a bit for followers of Guanyin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, whose picture adorns the doorways of the small compartments.
There is even a separate secular flooring, the place every compartment has a Chinese-style “roof” and double doorways embellished with gold cash to represent a affluent afterlife.
“I really had to imagine myself as someone ‘living’ inside one of these niches, and think about what kind of home I wanted to stay at when I’m gone,” Tong stated.
Source: www.cnn.com