Beijing will begin promoting smaller tombs and ecologically friendly burial sites as it starts to convince people to stop renting big tombs for the deceased, government official said.

Under a five-year plan for the funeral service sector, cemetery operators in Beijing will start offering suggestions to people to stop renting traditional ground tombs and choose eco-friendly burials instead. This means that relatives of the deceased are encouraged to opt for environment-friendly methods like tree, flower, or sea burials.

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Eco-friendly burial maintains the balanced relationship between human and nature. Aside from that, it also saves land, reduces funeral costs, and is less destructive to the environment, according to the document jointly released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and eight other departments.

"We hope more people will understand eco-burials through the events," said Hu Lizhon, a civil affair official from Jinhua, Zhejiang. 

In 2015, around 46 percent of burials in Beijing were eco-friendly, and the government wants to increase that to 50 percent by 2020. It also aims to increase cremation rate.

Qiao Kuanyuan, an expert from the China Federal Association, said that graveyards have become expensive due to land scarcity, and the government's urge for eco-friendly alternative is contrary to China's traditions, which believe that burying loved ones is the proper way to treat the dead and a sign of filial piety.

However, many of the cemeteries across Chinese cities have already been filled up, and deceased loved ones now end up being buried on neighboring cities.

Meanwhile, over 13 million Chinese people paid a visit to about 150 major cemeteries across China to honor their deceased loved ones amid the three-day Tomb Sweeping holiday, which ended on Monday.

As per the Chinese culture, Tomb Sweeping Day is not only literally sweeping the tombs of loved ones but also giving offerings such as food and wine and burning fake money for the deceased.

The number of visitors this year is up by nearly 4 percent compared with that of last year's, according to Xinhua.

Tomb Sweeping Day usually falls in early April. This year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs noted how technology has changed tradition as "sweeping tombs" on the Internet starts to emerge.

Tagseco-friendly tombs, Tomb Sweeping Day, china, Sea burial, burial, The Ministry of Civil Affairs