Zhou Jingxian, 45, travelled about 1,500 kilometers from northeastern China to east China's Qingdao by train and air and arrived late Saturday, not for urgent business, but for a collective funeral.

Together with Zhou's father, 429 people's ashes were put out to sea in Qingdao from Saturday to Sunday.

"My sisters and I have waited for three years to fulfill my father's last wishes to scatter his ashes at sea in Qingdao, as he was born in Qingdao and loved sea," Zhou said.

The 60th collective sea burial is free of charge for local residents.

"We offer free sea burials to attract more people to choose this environment-friendly way, as graveyards take more and more land," said Guo Kehuang, an official of Qingdao's Civil Affairs Department.

Traditionally, inhumation is the major way of burial for ethnic Han Chinese. But with the growing population, graves are taking up too much land in China where land is becoming increasingly precious.

At least 20 million graves are dug every year in China, covering 66.67 square kilometers, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs in China.

The Chinese government has been encouraging environmentally-friendly burials such as burials at sea or under trees, instead of digging graves.

Northeast China's Dalian City has been providing free sea burials for its residents since 2009. In Beijing, families can apply for subsidies if some of their members were buried at sea.

"At first, we felt uncomfortable about a sea burial and thought it was not respectful," said Ni Xuewu, a citizen in Qingdao, who kept his father's ashes for twenty years.

"Now, this seems to be a better way as my brothers are abroad and we are all getting old. We can pay tribute to our father whenever we go to the sea," Ni said.

It's also cleaner and safer to scatter flowers into the sea than to burn paper as sacrificial offerings before graves on festivals, said Zhou Jingxian.

The number of sea burials has doubled in the past year. The number of burials under trees, lawns and flower beds has also increased by 50 every year in Qingdao, according to Guo Kehuang.

In addition to coastal cities, some major inland cities, like Taiyuan, Shenyang and Wuhan, are also holding collective funerals. But of all burials in China every year, environmentally-friendly ones still make up only a fraction of them.

"About 10,000 bodies were cremated in Qingdao every year and less than 1,000 of them were buried at sea or under plants," said Xiong Weiguo, an official of the funeral administrative bureau in Qingdao.

As the traditional mind set is difficult to change, we need to work harder to promote awareness of environmentally-friendly burials, especially in rural areas, Guo said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2010)