According to Xinmin Evening News, Zhang Weifeng, a local veterinarian, was busy hunting for a pet tomb these days in Shanghai for his client, Zhou Ying. Zhou’s 12-year-old Cocker Spaniel had just died recently and she wanted to find a permanent resting place for her pet. As a newcomer to Shanghai, she hoped to get some help from local citizens.

Zhang knew a pet cemetery hidden in an agricultural park and recommended it to Zhou Ying. Our reporter recently found the place, and made a special trip to visit it. Several marble tombstones could be seen in the shade of lush green trees, each covering an area of 4-6 sq m, with the pet’s name and dates of birth and death carved on it.

This reporter also found a group burial area in the dense groves. More than 20 rows of tombs could be seen each composed of 5 small tombs. The spaces between each rows are very narrow and the entire group burial area only covers 100 sq.m. More than 20 tombs are occupied, many of the others being overgrown with.

Ms. Huang, who is in charge of selling pet tombs, concedes that the pet burial area is built to meet the needs of the rich. Currently there are 130 tombs, most of them having been booked, only a few still waiting for people to buy.

According to Huang, a single 2-sq-m tomb costs 20 thousand yuan (US$2.5 thousand), but only 2,500 yuan ($318) are charged if one chooses to bury his or her pet in the group burial area. The usage right of a tomb is fixed at 10 years.

Huang was reluctant to reduce the prices. When asking so, she said that her prices were very reasonable. “Somebody first bought a tomb here, for 2500 yuan, and then sold it for tens of thousands of yuan!” she declared.