People plant evergreen trees to cover ashes in Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery in Zhengzhou, Henan province. (Photo: China Daily/Wang Zhuangfei)
Biodegradable casket
On Saturday, a 58-year-old retired office worker in Zhengzhou who only gave her name as Chen, attended a free communal tree burial in a city suburb organized by the local government and Fu Shou Yuan Cemetery. More than 300 people, representing 90 families, buried the ashes of family members under saplings.
Chen dug a 50-centimeter-deep hole, and then placed a biodegradable casket containing the ashes of her parents-in-law inside. Then, she planted an evergreen privet next to the spot.
There were no monuments or headstones, but each plot was marked with a tree. Later, the names of the dead will be recorded on a list on a monument at the forest entrance.
"My husband and I agree with this eco-friendly funeral. We don't mind whether the names of the deceased are engraved on a tombstone or if their ashes are kept forever - they are always in our hearts. We can join online memorials on the cemetery's website, which will help us to avoid being caught in traffic jams near the cemetery during Qingming (aka the Tomb Sweeping Festival, on which Chinese people pay tribute to their ancestors)," Chen said.
According to the contract she and other participants signed with the local civil affairs bureau, in five years, when the ashes have degraded, the trees will be relocated and the land will be developed for new burials.
In recent years, a growing number of people in China, especially in urban areas, have embraced green funerals as local governments promote eco-friendly burials.
According to a target set in a guideline by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, by 2020, 50 percent of funerals in China every year will be green ceremonies.
The number of people from Beijing opting for burial at sea rose from 1,704 in 2014 to 2,675 last year, the Beijing Funeral Service Center said.
Meanwhile, the provincial funeral association in coastal Zhejiang province said relatives of people who choose sea burial are given 5,000 yuan to 15,000 yuan by the local government,
"In the old days, little concrete or cement was used in China. However, nowadays, these non-biodegradable modern materials are popular as materials for building cemeteries, and our ancestors lie in perpetuity via these 'immortal' monuments and coffins," said Sun, the professor.
Li Shilong, deputy general manager of Beijing Babaoshan Etiquette Co, a State-owned enterprise that provides services for 11 cemeteries, said extracting rock and other materials from quarries to make tombstones and monuments not only wastes energy, but is also a misuse of recyclable land.
"Born into nature, the best choice for the body is to return to the Earth and eventually merge with it. Cement and stones block the way back. Some established customs and practices used in traditional funerals need to be changed to form a more ecological society," he said.
