The city with zero "mortality rate": here, birth and death are "illegal"

Birth, aging, illness and death are the most natural things for human beings. However, there is a city that does not allow residents to be "born" or "die" . In fact, even dying of old age is illegal here.

This is Longyearbyen, the northernmost city in the world.

Longyearbyen city overview

Longyearbyen is located on Spitsbergen, the largest island in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Located at 78 degrees north latitude, only 1,300 kilometers from the North Pole, it is called the end of the world by many people.

From: Google Maps

Because it is so far north, there are four months without daylight in the winter and four months without nightlight in the summer.

60% of the land here is covered by glaciers, and there are less than 3,000 people living in the city, but there are at least 5,000 polar bears. So in order to ensure their own safety, the law in Longyearbyen stipulates that residents living here must be equipped with hunting rifles and know how to use hunting rifles .

Polar bears, statues and warning signs can be seen everywhere

In addition to being illegal without a gun, it is also illegal to keep a cat here. Although cats are so cute, in order to protect the few Arctic birds in the area, we can only reluctantly give up and legislate to ban cats.

But the most incredible thing about Longyearbyen is the policy on "life and death". Childbirth is prohibited here, and pregnant women must leave one month before giving birth . The elderly and the sick must also leave and go to other hospitals in Norway for treatment and retirement. It is the only city in the world that has made death illegal.

These seemingly very flexible regulations are actually determined by the harsh living conditions here.

Because agriculture cannot be developed on the ice sheet, almost all of Longyearbyen's food must be shipped from outside the island. There are no large factories here to produce materials needed for construction, so public resources must be used to the fullest extent. The entire city has only one hospital with 8 beds for emergency treatment. In order to minimize the use of medical resources, the only option is to prohibit production here.

The only hospital in Longyearbyen

The rejection of death is also determined by Longyearbyen's special geographical environment. Unless it is a sudden death, no one has the right to die here .

Actually, strictly speaking, it is not illegal to die in Longyearbyen, but there is a lack of public resources here, and there are no other facilities to deal with the remains except burial. But the contradiction is that there is no burial option in Longyearbyen . This means that you are not allowed to die here.

Longyearbyen's only cemetery has been out of use for 70 years

The decision to ban burials began in 1950.

Because people found that the bodies of seven residents who were killed by the "Spanish flu" that ravaged Europe in 1918 and buried here had not yet begun to decompose. And their bodies still contained living strains of the virus. In 1998, scientists extracted precious samples of this virus that killed 5% of the world's population in the 20th century from their remains.

1918 Spanish Flu

The average temperature in Longyearbyen is below zero degrees throughout the year. The surface is all permafrost. The permafrost temperature is below zero degrees. The moisture in the soil freezes the rocks and soil together. After the body is buried, it is like putting it in an ice cellar and will not rot naturally . Theoretically, as long as the ice does not melt, it can be preserved forever.

However, the activity of single-celled organisms and non-celled organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and mold spores decreases in low temperature environments, and their metabolism decreases or stops, which can cause them to remain dormant for a long time. Under certain conditions, it is possible to restore their activity by warming up or thawing.

Therefore, scientists are worried that the pathogens in the body will be preserved permanently, so they implement a "no death" policy to prevent unknown risks.

Here, all unreasonable regulations can be implemented, just because this place is really too "special".

It is the holder of the Guinness World Record for the northernmost city; it is the northernmost landing point for submarine communications cables; it is the last supply station for explorers coming to the Arctic; and it is also the "Noah's Ark" of global agriculture - the location of the Doomsday Seed Vault.

Doomsday Seed Vault

Initially, it was the rich coal resources here that attracted explorers from various countries to come here, and this barren land that sounded unsuitable for human survival was slowly transformed into a technological island and a tourist island.

Although it is a city, it has only one main road, and the most prosperous places are a few restaurants and shops. People here feel the romance brought to them by the ice and snow, waiting for the aurora with their loved ones in the long polar night, and kayaking and dog sledding with friends on sunny days.

Moreover, Longyearbyen has been visa-free for Chinese for nearly a hundred years. Would you like to experience this cold and lonely city?