Cemeteries

The site measuring 48,250 mow (~8 acres) was acquired in 1863. The cemetery opened in 1869. In 1924, a portion of Pahsienjao Cemetery began to be used for the burial of "Russian and other indigent refugees". Eventually, many Russian graves emerged here. There was also a monument to ten Russian merchants murdered by bandits in the Chinese countryside in 1925. The cemetery was destroyed and converted to a public park in 1958.

The cemetery, measuring 4.5 acres, opened in 1846 and stayed open until 1868. The first Russian grave in Shanghai – of Count Alexander de Medem, who died in 1859 at the age of 56 – was located in the southeastern quarter.

The cemetery, measuring 10 acres, opened in 1898. Twenty-four Russian sailors and privates – victims of Russo-Japanese War – were buried here in a mass grave, marked with a monument. Some of the most privileged Shanghai Russians were buried here, too, among them diplomats, politicians and aristocrats. The cemetery closed in 1951 and was later converted to a public park.

The Lokawei Cemetery, measuring 2 acres, opened in 1901 and closed in 1959.

The cemetery at 169 Hungjao Road opened in 1926. PastVu.

Zikawei (Siccawei) Cemetery, frequently referred to as "Russian Cemetery," was mainly used for charity burials and those of low-ranking members of police and defense units. There was also an occasional grave of a French missionary, from the Catholic mission compound at Siccawei. The location was to the north of Siccawei Creek, between Route Gaston Kahn and Avenue du Roi Albert. The site is now built up with high-rise apartments.

The semi-autobiographical novel by Irina Kirk, Born With the Dead (1963), describes the cemetery and its voluntary custodian, General Mihail Fedorovitch (1872–1936), who resided at the graveyard and took care of it in his late years:

“Zikawei Cemetery was on the west side of the city, a section where few Europeans lived or even visited, and where instead of signs the storekeepers hung small painted mirrors over their doors to frighten away the evil spirits. A narrow street ran along the banks of a canal, crowded with junks and sampans which housed large families of Chinese fishermen. The dirty, tattered sails of the sampans stood motionless in the windless air like a flock of gray birds waiting for a carcass. Under the shade of dust-covered willow trees, old women and naked children sought refuge from the merciless sun. As though in conspiracy with the heat, the oppressive smells of stagnant water, cheap cooking oil, and sweat prevented any fresh air from entering this part of the city.” 

According to Kirk, the French authorities spent little on the upkeep, and the cemetery had no trees when Fedorovitch took it over, so he planted willows along the alleys: “The weeping willows which General Fedorov[itch] planted some years ago were now tall, and their branches, like the arms of despondent widows, hung over the rows of white crosses. Only a small sector of the cemetery was still graveless; large sunflowers grew on it in disorder, towering over the dense and unleveled grass.”

According to Christian Henriot, in 1965, the Zikawei Cemetery was “entrusted to an automobile factory, which took charge of removing the graves to an unknown destination. Although we do not know the number of graves, its small size (8 mu) did not allow for more than eight hundred graves.”