This Day, That Year: April 5

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

An item from April 5, 1996, in China Daily showed people planting trees on Tomb Sweeping Day as a way to remember the dead.

In 1995, China's cremation rate reached 33.7 percent, thanks to a series of measures that the government took to save the country's shrinking farmland.

In the past few decades, authorities have continued to improve funerary and interment services.

The cremation rate was 48.6 percent in 2017, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Chinese are increasingly choosing so-called green funerals, such as burial at sea or having their ashes scattered or buried near trees.

The trend is being fueled by government efforts to encourage more people to abandon the traditional practice of interring ashes in the ground or in a tomb, which takes up considerable land.

Last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a guideline that set a national goal to have green ceremonies make up 50 percent of the annual total by 2020.

However, the promotion of green funerals is not easy because Chinese tend to stick to traditional ways - burial in a tomb - to show filial piety and respect to their ancestors, analysts said.

Last year, a financial incentive was introduced in Wenling, Zhejiang province: paying money monthly to people who choose a sea burial.

Under the policy, people over 70 in Wenling who sign a contract for sea burial will receive monthly remuneration based on age - from 100 yuan ($15) per month for those over 70, to 400 yuan for people over 100, according to local civil affairs authorities.

(China Daily 04/04/2019 page22)