1
It was nine o ‘clock in the morning, and the sun was burning the iron plates at the station. The crowd of deliverymen from nearby hospitals dispersed, and people who had bought food from the vegetable market waited at the station. Sister Wu stood on the side of the platform near the flower bed, holding a plastic sign in her hand. For a long time, she sat with the sign flashing outside. Crowds of people passed her, glancing at her from time to time.
Sister Wu is in her early 40s and has been selling for 10 years. Sold buildings before, in the city mall office building gate to pull people to see the house. Free car-to-car delivery, formal explanation by the sales staff to complete. The online manager does not pay her by the head, and the commission for successful deals often shrinks. She didn’t make much money, so she changed products. Introduced by people, she no longer sell yangzhai, instead to sell Yin zhai.
A tomb is a tomb. Population statistics show that 9.77 million people died in China in 2016, and an estimated 15.55 million people will die each year after 2020. In accordance with the in-depth reform of the local government, in principle, no new applications for commercial cemetery projects will be accepted. Commonweal sex cemetery restricts sale strictly. Big data is scary, and selling seems promising.
After 11 o ‘clock, Sister Wu gathered up her horse and said hello to the newspaper seller sitting in front of the hospital guard room. Then she went to the hospital. The coastal city is hilly and the hospital is built on a high slope. She climbed 40 steps into the hospital.
When Sister Wu saw a man wearing a hat, she always tried to avoid it subconsciously. It may be because of her own work, Elder sister Wu did not have a direct conversation with critical patients.
At the station and its environs there were also several promoters, likewise, with cards in their hands, and leaflets with fine coloured pages in their bags. The word “cemetery” was printed on the white paper, which was particularly dazzling in the light. Nearby residents are aging and hospital beds are always in short supply. A row of storefronts directly opposite residents’ ground floor houses several businesses that have operated for years: funeral services, flowers, nursing facilities, health products and local restaurants.
Sales voice is particularly noisy, “swim gym to have a look”, “school district special room ah special property room”. Cemetery salesmen, wearing hats and standing in silence, mingle with the black and white signs, watching and waiting for potential visitors.
2
Sister Wu is not a native. She moved to this city for more than ten years. Every year, what she looks forward to most is going back to her hometown for the Spring Festival. She doesn’t have a degree and can’t afford a high-paying job in a big city. The hardest part of her marketing career was health supplements, but it was then that she met her partner, Lao Li.
Lao Li is not tall, less than 1.6 meters. Choose your words carefully and speak logically, showing some knowledge. He carried a schoolbag with spare flyers in it. When Sister Wu finished, he handed over four or five copies. Lao Li was a native, graduated from senior vocational school, and over forty years old. He was getting more thoughtful every year. When Sister Wu got on the customer’s line, she would call Lao Li and tell him.
At the beginning of the month, the manager explained the market outlook to the salesmen and reassured them. “Our campaign ends in the middle of the month, and the price of each helmet must rise by ten thousand.” The manager swore that there would be no market. In order to attract customers, Wu has been to several markets with a high flow of residents, but the number of people is still limited.
Elder sister Wu worried that the price would increase, so Lao Li helped her analyze it. “This cemetery has just opened, so the price must rise because it can hold the whole cemetery.”
Lao Li had a lively mind and had done everything in bits and pieces. The lottery would sell the stamps and net twice as much. The best he could do was to go to the stock exchange every day. He could tell everything, but then he fell off a cliff and started selling.
Lao Li will judge the situation at any time. When selling health care products, at first he thought it was ok, then he felt that the company had gone too far, so he pulled Sister Wu out of the health care products industry, “there are too many tricks, don’t put yourself in.
Sister Wu is a real but clumsy person. She says as much as she can remember when she speaks, and often repeats the same sentence over and over, unable to answer the key point. Lao Li became Sister Wu’s partner.
Lao Li’s own business card is printed with his own seven words. Lao Li said, “Don’t look at them graduated from famous universities and so on. I’ve seen a lot of them. I said we could talk about Bach, Nietzsche and Chuang Tzu. Would he be able to continue the conversation with me?” Lao Li was so sophisticated that Sister Wu was convinced that he was an able man.
Lao Li can hold his tongue. Sister Wu could not tell the geomancy of east, West, North and South. Lao Li opens his mouth, “this geomantic, see you say not exquisite.”
Sister Wu patted the client she had brought with her. “Yes, you have to listen to this.”
As they have known each other for a long time, they have gained trust.
Government subsidies to encourage burial at sea have had little effect. Government subsidies to encourage burial at sea have had little effect.
In the jargon, the list of potential customers is a mix of attack and death. Attack list is the list is not finished, but can continue to conquer. A single death is a veritable waste of effort.
A woman and her old father went to the cemetery to see the tomb. Car dealer more than 20 kilometers, two people on the car do not speak. The old father repressed his emotions. The son had cancer and the situation was not optimistic. The lady was very well dressed and wanted to finally choose a better feng shui for her brother. But when she failed to look at the graves for sale at the cemetery, she was left with a blank SLATE.
And attack sheet contains the hope of clinching a deal. At the end of May, Elder Sister Wu entered the cemetery for the third time and accompanied Lao Li to visit the cemetery.
There are three routes leading to the cemetery. Along three main roads in the city’s downtown area, the company’s sales manager picks up scheduled guests at the meeting point.
In order to go to the cemetery, Sister Wu made preparations in advance. She wore jade around her neck and walnut around her wrists. The upper body is wearing a red pattern chiffon, waiting in the doorway of the shopping mall near the drop-off station. Lao Li, dressed as usual and wearing a hat, waited at the station.
Two families were visiting the cemetery that day. The people followed the manager, bypassed busy pedestrians, and were put into two private cars.
On the way, Lao Li talked about the rise of suburban villas in the past two years. Then he began to talk about the feng shui of the cemetery. Mr. Li turned around and spoke. His dark skin made him look very old.
“Like when we started, we used feng shui masters to teach us. For example, the road in front of the tomb should not be too straight, or luck will run away. Pay attention to a lot of, the key is to see what it is leaning against, and facing what, left and right will clip.” As the wind blew in, Lao Li said softly.
Before her client left, Ms. Wu said of another cemetery she was in charge of. “That’s ok,” she said. “If you have time, come and see it.” In a very literal sense, it’s like a burial in another cemetery, extending a person’s life.
Elder sister Wu did sell for many years, some people in contact with the unfortunate early death, some young open a drug store to earn two or three villas, more diseases rushed to, have no way out of the house. “What about living so long?” “I don’t want to live that long if I’m suffering and upset,” Wu said.
Lao Li advised her, “A man’s life lies not in the length but in the quality of his life. You must live with quality.”
3
In March 2017, the municipal government issued a report that strictly approved the sale of 36 cemeteries from 131 public cemeteries in the city. Following the tomb-sweeping Day agitation by a large number of salesmen to sell the cemetery, in fact, are prohibited price trading of public welfare cemetery. Most of the commercial cemeteries that can be bought and sold are saturated with high prices.
Someone in the industry confesses, as long as it is not too much, there is no problem. If the government does try to resolve the deal, the buried ashes will be hard to get out, and there will be little reconciliation with the family. It is difficult for gardens, local governments, civil affairs authorities and investors to coordinate and understand. At the same time, there is no more land for burial, and the problem of scattered graves needs to be solved. The sale of public cemeteries has become a gray area.
Sister Wu has many peers.
Instead of soliciting customers for the same cemetery, the “salesmen” compete with each other like selling clothes from different sources in a store. Over time, they chat about income or go to the bathroom with each other. Promotion has no fixed salary, earn are commission. Sell high, earn high, do not sell not earn. There was only one saleswoman in her early 30s who could explain the nature of the contract. There is also a middle-aged man, can say a few words of ancient poetry.
Like Lao Li, the salesman who can recite ancient poems is a native. He went to the station in the city near the station to tell people about his village’s cemetery, and stayed there for a day. The village’s cemetery will not carry the company’s name, but it looks the most impressive in a brochure that claims it was “carefully planned and designed by master Emei”.
Non-local cemeteries are not allowed to be traded and are still playing on the edge.
Sister Wu can’t recite ancient poems, but she compares one cemetery she is in charge of to the nearest one, with all the others “behind” it and a Ming dynasty general buried there. A general sitting in a cemetery is “quality assurance”.
According to the Report on The Development of Funeral Business in China (2014-2015) released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs 101 Research Institute, the month around Tomb-sweeping Day is not only the “funeral month”, but also the “travel style construction month” and the “quality service month”. In the cemetery salesmen, the period around Tomb-sweeping Day is busy.
During the Qingming Festival, the cemetery will be promoted with special promotion activities, including “permanent use”, “lowest price”, “free shuttle bus pick-up” guaranteed in the brochure, and 20 years or even permanent management fees can be waived. Local fees are actually set at 50 yuan per year for the storage of ordinary urns and 150 yuan per year for the management of cemeteries.
Government subsidies to encourage burial at sea have had little effect.
During peak qingming season, a cemetery in Ms Wu’s charge filled a bus with potential customers going to see the tomb to listen to propaganda in a speeding car. Wayan sat next to the customers, chatted with them about their families and arranged the tomb visits over the phone for those who had not booked seats.
Later, sister Wu was encouraged by the sales on Tomb-sweeping Day, so she carried out the sales campaign in June. According to the commission in the industry, the salesman’s income accounted for 8%. She appeared frequently on the platform. “Just check it out,” she said. “We provide free transportation.” Sister Wu worked hard.
“Really? Don’t let me go. I have to sign.” “Asked a woman.
“Not really.” “A hundred years,” Sister Wu told her customers, “and the cemetery is permanent.”
4
The cemetery is not located by public transport, but is built on the side of a road. Carve the name simply on a stone. The car drove up the hill along a flattened path, past a billboard advertising “Civilized Sacrifice” and a row of private houses in the management room. It stopped on a platform.
There is no square, not even the sense of a square photographed in a brochure. Rows of tombstones cling to the mountainside, like pale gray trees cut along the height, or upside-down combs with missing slits. Much of the earth was bare, desolate and solemn.
“… There is a spring in it… The real dragon’s Lair, hiding the wind and lifting the air…” In the brochure, red brick roads resemble the city’s crosswalks. Because it is still under construction, the dirt road forms a contrast, the field looks more level. A nearby road was paved in 2004, and the cemetery was built in 2006. The original villagers’ graves on the mountain were replaced by granite steles, but the construction of the cemetery has not stopped.
South of the cemetery, a low-lying pool, known as Baocai, is supposed to be the same vein as a Buddhist temple carved two kilometers away. Another square concrete pond is under construction and is said to be a free life pond.
Construction has continued to this day, but it is still being expanded to become the industry’s secret reality. The granite material was cut and scattered on the cemetery’s precious land.
As people climb up the stone steps, they can sometimes hear the solar-powered, lotus-handled chanting machines that silently recite buddhist sutras. There are also people placed in front of the tomb of the deceased glass cover, inside the worship of cloth flower ingot, are at his own expense.
The cemetery with a starting price of 50, 000 is already quite high up in the mountains. The location of the high-priced cemetery has a clear view, with no pine trees blocking the view. Directly above are the overhead lines that supply the countryside, and behind them are the sparse trees. The private tombstone of a villager stands alone in the woods.
As far as the eye can see, to the east, are shiny green lawns and new factories, the use of which is owned, in effect, by a well-known local dairy company, including the cemetery plot. To the west were rows of low-rise factory buildings that looked closer and older. That’s a local business. There are also a few white sheep hidden in the trees on the west side.
The manager explained the feng shui of the cemetery and extracted it from these scenes. “That’s Yuanbaoshan, and a lot of our clients use feng shui.” He began to sketch in the air. “Look at this shape. Is it an ingot?” As if the ingot could be held in the palm of the hand of posterity.
Speaking of the material of the stele, the manager’s hand struck against one on which the inscription had been carved. The tablet shook slightly. He came so often that it was like walking in his own neighborhood park.
Five generations of family graveyards become gimmicks. A family tablet can be erected in front of a tall rectangular granite tomb. The unsold family cemetery is like a hole in the front of the mountain, with four built-in steps from the granite opening to hold urns for five generations. But now there were workers’ shovels scattered over it, insect corpses and pieces of plastic in piles.
Most spend a house, in front of the family grave add buy granite helps column, high vertical surname tablet besieged in the center, forming a “Π” form of small square.
More are empty square acupuncture points that are bought in advance as investments. The point reveals a shallow pit of no more than 20 centimeters, and after completion, granite had to be raised to fit into a regular urn. The grass is encouraged, growing in granite squares. They’ve taken that position, popping up one after another from a position that currently sells for 28,888 and has nothing to do with feng Shui.
5
Wu doesn’t go to the office very often. She keeps a close eye on the trading links to keep customers from being “routed away” by others. She did not know the exact terms and precautions of the contract.
When a customer wanted to know the details, Wu replied, “Everyone else went and read it and bought it right away. There are grave guides, if you want to know more.” “Tomb guide” refers to the docent of a cemetery.
When the carrying residents looked at Ms. Wu, she did not introduce more, but held the sign up gently.
“How much is it? “Asked the middle-aged man.
“It depends on how much you want.” Sister Wu wore a sunshade hat that covered her forehead and a mask that covered the other half of her face. The voice is very loud.
“At what price?” “The middle-aged man continued.
“Look at this, we do activities, a special one helmet (graveyard unit), can give you up to 6800.” Sister Wu handed over the publicity pages.
The middle-aged man shook his head, did not even pick up the leaflets, directly went.
Wu dajie is not discouraged, “cemetery is how to buy.” ‘she murmured.
In the brochure, the cemetery claimed to be “a public welfare cemetery planned and constructed in 2006 according to the requirements of the municipal civil affairs department”. In the list of “the first batch of public welfare cemeteries that have completed the pricing procedures and can be sold to the outside world” released by the municipal government on March 29, 2017, the cemetery promoted by Sister Wu was not included in the list. Can be on column later, cannot say accurate.
“It’s not just you. The whole cemetery, more than eight thousand clients, I’m sure.” She hasn’t seen all of them. In order to do her job properly at the station, she blurted out, inspired by the manager’s words.
“It’s not just you. The whole cemetery, more than eight thousand clients, I’m sure.” She hasn’t seen all of them. In order to do her job properly at the station, she blurted out, inspired by the manager’s words.
Sister Wu spoke of a very old man who had a pension of eighteen thousand and was in good health in his nineties. He could afford to ask what the best cemetery could be, no matter how expensive.
The choice of more than eight thousand customers seems to last forever.
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