The Beijing municipal government aims to have half of burials in its 33 public cemeteries using eco-friendly methods by 2020. The current rate of burials that are eco-friendly is 45.9 percent.
To reach the city’s goal, Beijing would push for Chinese burying their dead relatives to use smaller tombs. It is also promoting other burial methods such as flower, tree and sea burials as well as cremation as Beijing grapples with lack of land and pollution, reported China Daily.
However, the biggest block to these eco-friendly methods is Chinese preference for traditional burial practices such as the body must be covered by soil for the soul to have repose, and the use of large tombstones to indicate the dead person’s social standing while still alive.
To convince Beijing residents to give the new methods a try, when their 20-year rental lapses, relatives would be urged to transfer the ashes or bones into a “greener” tomb, said Li Hu, an official of the Beijing Civil Affairs Bureau. But those who opt to renew their lease in the same tomb would be allowed.
Families who agree to have a sea burial would receive 4,000 yuan ($611). But despite that financial incentive, only 2.21 percent of the corpses cremated, or 2,000 bodies, in 2015 were strewn into the sea, which brought to 13,700 the number of ashes placed in the sea in Beijing since 1994. Across China, the national cremation rate as of 2014 was 45.6 percent.
The issuance of the new rules is timely as China observes its Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, in early April. It is similar to the All Souls Day tradition in Christian nations held on Nov. 2 or two days after Halloween.
The new rules also urged relatives to minimize the use of concrete building materials such as stone and cement. Instead, the Beijing government prefers the use of biodegradable pots and vases, reported China Christian Daily.