Can I get buried here on an APRC or do I need a Taiwan ID? I am married here, have an APRC and kids. I will likely have grandkids soon. Do I need to give up my home country’s passport to be buried here ? How about cremation although I prefer 6 feet under. I want to pass here and be buried here. What’s the legal situation on this. Thanks.
Good question: I want answers too.
What are the options?
About cremation
火化服務簡介
外國在台死亡者申請人授權書、亡者護照、駐台代表處公證證明。
Some ceremony
如欲參加聯合奠祭是否有戶籍限制？外國人可否參加？
https://mso.gov.taipei/News_Content.aspx?n=BF24ED074058DA49&s=5DC92FA67F0ACED3
臺中市公立殯葬設施使用收費標準
第四條亡者具下列情形之一者，得申請以本市籍市民收取費用
Foreigner on APRC or ARC with an address registered in Taichung City
3 Likes
Thanks 
We had to cremate a roommate here once. True story. Although I think his brother and girlfriend took care of the formalities. We went for the cheapest plywood option on the coffin.
1 Like
Ive had a few foreign friends here cremated without issue. To be buried, Or stuck in a tomb, is easy if you are in a local family and just go into their family plot.
Lots of people are buried/spread without much red tape. But being buried i suppose on paper comes with more rules as far as health concerns go. Ashes are super easy. Ive got a friend or 2 ashes spread out in a number of very popular tourist locations. Its a very simple thing if cremated. Just dont ask officially and trust your loved ones.
1 Like
Thanks for the feedback.
With the removal of many cemeteries, you’d need to be judicious about where you choose to be buried. The concept of a “final resting place” guaranteed to be permanently undisturbed isn’t really a thing here (unless you’re famous).
2 Likes
What’s with the removal of cemeteries? Back home this would be considered outrageous. I get the superstition of the living close to the dead in urban areas etc and Taipei trying to increase the price value and development of these areas. But what about the dead? Pretty disrespectful to them. I could just imagine the family members having to apply to remove the ones etc or just losing it all in the process. And the dead person, couldn’t even Rest In Peace.
1 Like
I agree for the most part. Taiwan is short of land , however their population is almost stagnant. I stumble across quite a lot of old, crumbling tombs in the countryside. A few still looked after but most not. Amazing to think the bones in there were once of a real person with all his/her life dramas , now and apart from that crumbling old tomb all forgotten. I think the ancient Greeks said “A person is only truly dead when the last memory from him has been forgotten in the minds or history books of the living” I guess that includes memes etc
2 Likes
Its money. Many of the older generation werent loved anyway so its just a tradition no one truly cares a lot about. They say they do, but how often do they go maintain or visit? Usually only ever visited and cared for during tomb sweeping holliday. So when they tear them up its usually paid for to the families and they are happy to take the money. If they own the land they can fight it relatively easily. But money seems more important than burial plots now a days.
If one really cared about longevity of their bones, temples. They tend to outlast most other operations. And legally the buildings are hard to buy and sell compared to regular land so they are protected some. But will be paying an annual fee.
National parks are pretty permanent as well though illegal.
Im not personally too sure why people care so much about a final resting place as its all temporary. Its more jist a place for loved ones to gather and remember as such things could be far less complicated. As many say, great grand children have no connection and thus the memory is lost after that. Maybe trying to put heavy restrictions on your land so it can stay intact would be an easier undertaking and more permanent?
1 Like
It is outrageous in my view too. Here’s a recent case:
2 Likes
It’s been standard practice in the West for centuries. We could do a whole thread about it (in Culture & History). Maybe we already have, but like centuries-old graves, we’ve forgotten about it. 
That have just done this at St James Euston London, to make way for the high speed rail. I also read a UK news report last year, about then digging up graves to reuse them I don’t know what became of it.
Most people in Taiwan choose cremation, burial plots are insanely expensive. You have to buy a little niche in a columbarium where the urn will be placed. Prices differ hugely. Cheapest are the municipal ones. Ground floor and basement are cheaper than the higher floors.
No one has mentioned jiangu yet so I will. A common practice here is for a body to lie in a grave for 10 years and then the family gathers to pick up the bones and place them in a box for crushing, and transfer to an urn.
2 Likes
Re-using burial sites is common in Europe, but in the US (with its vast land area) it’s quite an unthinkable idea to most people. Americans, in general, take the notion of a “final resting place” seriously. A lot of controversy is generated when a development plan includes the removal of a cemetery. Sometimes they have to build around them; other times they may be required to relocate all the bodies and gravestones to a new site.
Europe has an interesting history with cemetery removals, which has led to the creation of things like the Paris catacombs and the Sedlec Ossuary.
3 Likes
The difference in the states is also perhaps because people can actually own land unlike the rest of the world. Does that play into cemetary longevity at all? I dont know but i bet it does.
Is the the United States of America? Where that state can seize the land with forced financial settlements. To build an oil pipeline, even if it’s a burial site.
Yes that one. Do you know any other developed country that doesnt also do that? In the end the gov is the biggest baddest gangster with all the guns and all the power. The usa though does have actual land ownership, unlike virtually everywhere else. Comparing to their closest neighbour to the north, canadians only essentially buy the rights to the land not actually owning the land. I realise the usa gov can take away the land with many new and interesting laws (another conversation which is rightfully worrysome) but they actually own the land last time i heard. And in the interest to this topic that seems very much relevant compared to countries who own the rights to the land.
In the end maybe the most logical stance is to realise once your dead, and your next 2 generations are dead, your burrial place isnt important to pretty much anyone. If it is, plan ahead accordingly by buying land and raising your next of kin to keep it and to train their next of kin to do the same. So on and so forth.
Trusting the government for 300 years to keep its word is the definition of insanity quite frankly. So is thinking your burial plot is worthy of an indefinite lease, this world is always evolving its kind of silly to ignore that fact.