Baoxing Funeral Home: A Century of Farewells on West Baoxing Road
Basic information
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Shanghai Baoxing Funeral Home |
| Address | 833 West Baoxing Road — West Baoxing Road is the boundary road between the former Zhabei and Hongkou, the Zhabei side belonging to Gonghexin Road Subdistrict |
| Predecessor | a Japanese cremation ground of 1908 → the "West Baoxing Road crematorium" of 1950 |
| Named | September 1984, renamed "Shanghai Baoxing Funeral Home" |
| New building | completed in October 2002, on a site of about 22,800 m², with 24.7% greenery |
| Scale | handles nearly 50% of the funeral business of urban Shanghai, and more than 20,000 bodies a year |
| Keywords | a century, a boundary road, the last journey of a life |
First, this "boundary road": West Baoxing Road
To tell of Baoxing Funeral Home, one must first tell of the road it stands on — West Baoxing Road.
This road is unusual: it is the boundary road between the former Zhabei and Hongkou. The sub-district on the Zhabei side is Gonghexin Road Subdistrict — whose eastern boundary is "West Baoxing Road and North Baoxing Road, bordering Hongkou District".
The origin of the road: it was built in 1913 (the second year of the Republic), and took the name "Baoxing Road" from a "Baoxing Lane" at the junction. Later the road grew longer and longer, and in 1995 it was divided into sections: the stretch from Zhongshan North Road to the Songhu Railway was made "East Baoxing Road", while the stretch from Liuying Road to Zhongshan North Road became "West Baoxing Road" — the two roads you see on a map today were once one family. (Which is why, in an old Shanghailander's mouth, "East Baoxing Road" and "West Baoxing Road" often point at the same stretch of memory.)
And No. 833 West Baoxing Road is Baoxing Funeral Home. A century-old place of farewells, set down on a boundary road where two districts meet — the position itself is like its identity: people coming and going, seeing off and welcoming in.
A century: from "cremation ground" to "funeral home"
The history of Baoxing is far longer than the three words "funeral home":
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 1908 (the 34th year of the Guangxu reign, Qing dynasty) | the Japanese firm Faguang bought a stretch of riverside waste land in Baoshan County and built cremation facilities, which people of the time called the "Japanese burning ground" |
| 1924 (the 13th year of the Republic) | a funeral hall in the style of a Japanese temple was completed, and the facilities were gradually perfected |
| during the War of Resistance against Japan | as more Japanese lived in Shanghai, the site was enlarged |
| after the victory in the War of Resistance | it was taken over by the war-crimes administration of the day |
| 1949 | Shanghai was liberated, the people's government took it over, and it became a public facility for ordinary citizens to hold funerals |
| 1950 | it was formally named the "West Baoxing Road crematorium" |
| September 1984 | it was renamed "Shanghai Baoxing Funeral Home", a name still in use |
| 18 October 2002 | the new building was completed |
Counting from 1908, it has travelled more than a century — and is one of the funeral homes with the longest history in China.
2002: the new building completed
In the late 1990s the Shanghai Municipal Government allocated nearly 150 million yuan for a wholesale rebuilding of Baoxing.
On 30 November 1999 the foundation stone of the rebuilding was laid. On 18 October 2002 the new building was completed.
What the new building presented surprised many people:
- a site of 22,800 m², with 24.7% greenery;
- a functional layout of "one main hall with two subsidiary halls", combining park scenery with a hotel-style environment;
- and later it acquired two lines that travelled far — "From a distance it looks like a park, up close like a hotel, and only when you walk in do you know it is a funeral home."
The "hotel-style" and "park-style" spoken of here are not meant to dress up farewells as something easy, but to let ordinary people seeing off a loved one take their leave properly, in a place that is decent, peaceful, and does not hurry them along.
It is also the first funeral home in the whole funeral industry of China to have won both ISO9001 quality certification and ISO14001 environmental certification.
The last journey of half of Shanghai
Baoxing Funeral Home today handles nearly 50% of the funeral business of urban Shanghai, and more than 20,000 bodies a year. Inside it there is also a sea burial service department, responsible for administering the city's sea-burial subsidies and the scattering of ashes at sea — handing the final farewell to the sea.
Its honours are unusual too: a national advanced collective in funeral work, a national demonstration unit in funeral services, a national model home of workers, a national "May 1" women pacesetter post … behind these medals lies a city's seriousness towards the matter of "farewells".
Farewells on this patch of land
In fact this place, Zhabei, has always had a deep bond with "seeing people off":
- the tomb of Song Jiaoren is in Zhabei Park — the "father of constitutionalism", who was assassinated in Zhabei, sleeps there (Zhabei Park);
- beneath Linfen Road Subdistrict there was once a thousand-mu "Guangzhao Shanzhuang" — a charitable burial estate and resting place for natives of Guangdong and Zhaoqing who lived in Shanghai (Linfen Road Subdistrict);
- and in Zhabei's own history, the two fires of war in 1932 and 1937 made this patch of land see off far too many people (Part One).
Baoxing Funeral Home sits at the edge of this land, still doing the work of "seeing people on their way". It is not a sight, nor an "old institution" — but it is one of the places this city is least willing to mention, and least able to do without.
Practical tips
- Address: 833 West Baoxing Road; enquiry telephone 021-56629007 (officially published);
- the area around West Baoxing Road and Guangzhong Road nearby, reachable by bus;
- this is not a place to "visit" — every day it handles nearly half of the city's farewells. If you pass by, look at the road, and think of its century as a boundary road and a place of farewells; that is enough.
Connections
- See also：Gonghexin Road Subdistrict, Zhabei Park, Linfen Road Subdistrict, Part One · A Chronicle of Zhabei
Sources: the lineage, data and honours of Baoxing Funeral Home follow the introduction "Shanghai Baoxing Funeral Home" on the official website of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, the Table of Information on Shanghai's Funeral Homes, and the relevant entries of Kuaidong Baike and 360 Baike (cross-checked against the official wording); the lineage of West Baoxing Road follows the Shanghai gazetteer and the Wikipedia entry "West Baoxing Road". The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.