A charity event featuring free sea and tree burials was held in Shenzhen yesterday, as the city continues encouraging more residents to turn away from traditional land burial methods in favor of greener space-saving ones.

Chinese people often bury the ashes of their deceased loved ones to pay tribute to them during the Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, which falls on Sunday this year. It is a day for people to visit their ancestors’ graves and honor them by burning paper offerings.

Cremains are buried under the trees.

A tree burial was held yesterday morning at Jitian Cemetery in Buji, Longgang District. Wearing masks and gloves, the participating families queued in an orderly manner and, following the guidelines, placed the ashes of their late loved ones under a flourishing tree.

“Our family members came here today to see my father off,” said a woman, surnamed Yu. “This follows my father’s wishes for his cremated ashes to be buried under trees because we believe that the deceased is laid to final rest under the ground,” Yu told Shenzhen Daily.

Yu said that tree burial is also a more eco-friendly burial option, as it emphasizes simplicity and sustainability.

The tree burial event involved the burying of 107 deceased persons’ ashes, 60 of whom were from Shenzhen, data from the city’s funeral home showed.

People prepare to scatter the ashes of their deceased family member into the sea during a free sea burial event held in the public sea area off Yantian District in eastern Shenzhen yesterday.

The sea burial took place around noon in the public sea area off Yantian District. Taking a boat trip against the soothing wind, the bereaved families scattered the ashes of their deceased family members, along with flower petals, into the sea through a funnel.

“I attended the sea burial to bid farewell to my departed daughter,” said a man, surnamed Zhang, who was joined by two other family members.

According to Zhang, his daughter, aged 30, passed away due to illness. He was the one who signed up for the sea burial for his beloved daughter, in the hope that the vast sea could be her final resting place.

The sea burial involved scattering the ashes of 123 deceased persons, including 55 Shenzhen residents, three organ donors and 19 deceased persons from Guiyang of Guizhou Province.

Shenzhen has been promoting greener options like sea, tree and flower burials since 1998. As of this year, the city has hosted 45 sea burials and 15 tree burials, which not only help save land, but also reduce citizens’ funeral expenses.

According to the city’s civil affairs bureau, families who choose green burials for their loved ones that have Shenzhen hukou will receive a subsidy of 3,000 yuan (US$458) for sea burials and 1,000 yuan for other kinds of green burials.

Green burials are free of charge even for those who have passed away in the city but are without Shenzhen hukou.