Li Guangyuan burned incense on April 5 in memory of his wife, who died last month at age 81. But he is not be among the millions of Shanghai residents who mark Qingming, China’s annual day of mourning, by sweeping the graves of their departed loved ones.
While others are cleaning ancestral burial sites in area cemeteries, Li spends the day at home: The ashes of his wife were scattered at sea.
“We made the decision because we have no children, so we don’t want to trouble others to sweep our graves,” said Li, a retired school teacher. “Sea burial also saves arable land.”
City government would be happy to hear about the couple’s decision.
Every year, 100,000 people die in Shanghai, and the city’s cemeteries are rapidly running out of room. If everyone opted for graveyard burial, the city’s remaining capacity would be used up in six years.
As such, interment authorities have been trying to encourage residents to switch their burial practices to options that don’t use up the land.
Traditionally, cremated remains are buried in a box in a cemetery, either in suburban Shanghai or the nearby cities including Suzhou, Wuxi and Hangzhou. Topped by a tombstone, each plot takes up about 1.5 square meters of cemetery space.
It is also expensive. The grave marker alone costs about 10,000 yuan (US$1,200).
Sea interment, of course, uses no land and costs only about 150 yuan per mourner for the boat ride to the east China Sea.
Three other land-friendly methods also are now being used: planting a tree or grass atop the remains or placing the ashes inside a wall.
Tree-type and lawn burials allow greenbelts to replace cemeteries, and wall interments are space-savers.
They also are cheaper than traditional interments. Lawn burials cost only about 3,000 yuan for a 0.6-square-meter plot, for instance.
To encourage the practice, the Funeral and Interment Division of Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau will provide wall and tree-type burials for people below the poverty line.
Funeral authorities estimate that the policy will apply to 1,400 low-income deceased this year.
“Though it seems to be a small number, we hope to encourage more people to choose environmentally friendly methods of interment,” said Gu Qiugeng, director of the division.
Such burials will also help cut traffic congestion on the highways during Qingming.
The grave visits begin in mid-March and peak this weekend. Shanghai’s traffic authority estimated that 4.8 million people will travel to the suburbs or to the neighboring cities in that period.
(eastday.com 04/05/2001)
