CFA International Network Center visit to  China International Repatriation Carriers

Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center accompanied by CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting, Ms. Susana Pinilla, visit some of the 35 authorized carriers for international repatriations in China.

All the visited carriers have shown their hospitality and expertise during the visits to discuss international repatriation relevant topics and new industry updates. 

In the visit to Chengdu Funeral Home where we met the professional team. They showed us their repatriations brochure, which inspired the idea to draft a general informative brochure for consulates, families and funeral homes across the whole country and abroad. They have also developed very well-organized protocols and procedures in order to train the staff and know what to do.

(From left to right: Mr. Ke, Director of Chengdu Funeral Home; Ms. Susana Pinilla, CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting Service Co., Ltd, Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center of China Funeral Association; Director Tian, Director Zhu and Mr. Wang from Chengdu Funeral Home)

Tianjin Funeral home organized a visit to their facilities, specially the areas deployed for the international customers, such as the embalming room, wake rooms for the family to rest and others. Also, the coffin used for international services introduced. Several acknowledgement letters are displayed in their walls as a reminder of the good service to the customers. After the walk through the facilities there was a presentation of a new project, an online software to help issue the 3 CFA official documents. This software can help avoid counterfeit documents, avoid handwriting mistakes and can also provide statistics for management.  Tianjin funeral home leaders and staff and Babaoshan leader Mr. Sun work together sharing their expertise in a brainstorming session to improve the software functionality before is presented to other funeral homes. 

Beijing Babaoshan Funeral Home has a very good international repatriation team led by the experienced Director Mr. Sun, who has been taking care of repatriations for many years. The team members can communicate with foreign families in English, which ensures quality services. Babaoshan offers excellent facilities for the comfort of the bereaved families and a very efficient service that ensures that the repatriation will be carried out without delays. 

Last November Mr. Wen and Ms. Susana accompany the UK Vice-Consul in his first visit to the funeral home.

We visited to Changsha Funeral Home facilities and have a meeting with the Bureau leaders about the current topics of international repatriations including the new recommended price list for the main basic services for repatriations. Their facilities have beautiful surroundings and gardens and they are practical and useful to families. Changsha Funeral Home has long-term collaboration with Changsha Social Work College Funeral Rituals department. The college has trained many staff members and managers for funeral homes within the province and even in other provinces. They are currently renovating the training center to provide a better space and equipment for the students to learn and practice. The college has asked the International Network Center and Ms. Susana to provide training courses on repatriations to the students.  

(From left to right: Ms. Susana Pinilla, CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting Service Co., Ltd, Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center of China Funeral Association; Mr. Huang, Director of Changsha Funeral Management Office; Mr. Zhu, Director of Changsha Funeral Home; Mr. Lu, Director of Changsha Social Work College)

(From left to right: Mr. Lu, Director of Changsha Social Work College; Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center of China Funeral Association; Ms. Susana Pinilla, CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting Service Co., Ltd; Ms. Xie, Vice-president of Changsha Social Work College; Mr. Xu, Head of Department of Student Affairs, Changsha Social Work College)

Funeral Career group opening ceremony, the group has been established by Changsha College and CFA International Network Center. 

In Xi’an, we visited the biggest the Funeral Home facilities in China. They are kept in optimal state and they count on a large team of staff to take care of every single detail. The funeral home leaders showed us their stunning wake houses for the families to spend a couple of days as comfortable as if they were in their homes. We were very impressed by the leaders and team efforts to provide good service to the customers with limited resources. 

 (From left to right: Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center of China Funeral Association; Ms. Susana Pinilla, CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting Service Co., Ltd; Mr. Xu, Director of Xi’an Funeral Home; Mr. Zhou, Director of the Operation Department of Xi’an Funeral Home) 

                                                              (Taken at the meeting for the visitors and the management of Xi’an Funeral Home)

Wake house of Xi'an Funeral Home 

Xiamen Funeral Home facilities are very well maintained, updated with new technologies and they are currently building a new accommodation building for the guests and upgrading the hearses. We were impressed by their   convenient design of the coffin outer bag for international repatriation.  The leaders and team are aligned on developing the customer orientation for the funeral services towards customization and accompanying all the family members throughout all the process from the beginning to the end.  

(From left to right: Mr. Zhu, Fushouyuan group, Ms. Zhu deputy manager of Xiamen Funeral Home, Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center, Mr. Li Chief of the Bureau, Ms. Susana CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting, Mr. Lv manager of the Xiamen Funeral home, Mr. Zhu Manager of the IT company)

Outer coffin bad design (copy of main documents taped outside the bag)

In Nanchang Funeral Home, the leader led us to visit the renovated facilities which have impressive renovated ceremony halls beautifully connected by decorated hallways, they have mastered the art of turning a simple internal operations corridor into a pleasant space with trees and flowers that provide a sense of peace and comfort even though you are inside a funeral home.

They count on experts from the hospital and college to perform the embalming for the international repatriations. Currently they are renovating some parts of the funeral home to improve their service to families.

Because funeral service is of such importance, they hire experts from a profession funeral service company to provide trained staff members to carry out the ceremonies and rituals.

Funeral hall of Nanchang Funeral Home

(From left to right: Ms. Susana Pinilla, CFA Special Assistant for International Affairs and General Manager of Beijing Cixiaotong International Consulting Service Co., Ltd, Mr. Wen Xihua, Director of International Corpse Transportation Network Service Center of China Funeral Association; Mr. Xiong, Director of Nanchang Funeral Management Office; Mr. Wan, Director of Nanchang Funeral Museum)

Other carriers previously visited such as Guangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan... they all shared the spirit of customer service and self-improvement.  

Both leaders and members of the funeral home teams of all the authorized carriers are clear about procedures and key aspects of repatriations, such as:

 1) the facilities, supplies and operations must meet relevant standards; 

 2) the service to the families must be excellent, guiding them through the process and communicating with them fluently if possible in English.

 3) Embalming-a key point of repatriations, it must be well performed in order to keep the body in good conditions when it arrives at destination.

We are thankful for their hospitality and impressed by their professional knowledge.