2016年CRI Urban Authorities Encourages ＂Green Funeral＂（在线收听）

Beijing civil affairs bureau deputy director Li Hongbing said the moves aim to save lands and resources.

"Sea-burial has developed in the past ten years with cremains of 2040 deceased put into sea last year. But there is another way to reduce land use. For instance, deep burial is a solution. We use caskets made from bio-degradable materials and bury them deep into the ground. After three to five years, they will totally dissolve into the soil and return to nature. And it won't cause any kind of pollution."

To promote green burials, Li said municipal authority in Beijing offer fiscal subsidies for citizens who choose eco-friendly burials.

Traditional Chinese beliefs dictate that burial is the proper way to handle a dead body.

In order to show filial piety, many Chinese invest heavily in their parents' tombs.

Death has become a rather expensive business.

According to an official report, the average cost of a funeral service in Beijing was 70,000 yuan, or about 10,700 U.S. dollars, in 2015.

According to China Funeral Association, grave plots have become expensive due to land scarcity, and government calls for eco-friendly alternatives have been countered by old beliefs.

Shanghai authorities promote a new technology to crystlize the cremation of the deceased with a high-temperature process.

The volume of the crystlized substance is only 20 percent of that of the cremation of the dead.

The technique largely reduced the costs of burials with each case costing 17,000 yuan, and requires only one third of the price of an ordinary small grave.

He Zhaomin is director of shanghai funeral service center.

"It has its advantages. For example, a grave which takes 0.7 square meters in the graveyard run by our center costs 50 000 to 70 000 yuan. We are considering finding a way to let citizens believe that their loved ones are always around them."

The director added that authorities encourage citizens to choose ecological ways of burial but respect their own wishes first.

Also, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other ministries jointly released a circular about eco-burials and efficient use of burial sites in February.

It called on people to support group burials of family members in a single grave site.