When were sea burials held in Shanghai?

Since the first sea burial was held in Shanghai on March 19, 1991, the ashes of 37,056 deceased people were scattered into the sea in Shanghai*** as of the end of 2016, data from the Shanghai Municipal Funeral Service Center showed on March 25th.

Shanghai is one of the first provinces and cities in China to implement sea burials. Tens of thousands of sea-buried people, including China's generation of literary hero Ba Jin, have been laid to rest in the miles of floodwaters at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Sea burials are the most radical form of land-saving burial, with zero land consumption. However, traditional concepts advocate "putting ashes in the ground for peace", and in 1991, fewer people in Shanghai could accept the scattering of ashes at sea, while today the city's citizens have become more and more receptive to sea burials.

Data show that over the past 20 years, the annual number of sea burials in Shanghai has increased from more than 100 to 3,345 at the end of 2016, and the proportion of sea burials to the number of burials in the year has reached 2.7 percent, with an average annual growth of about 10 percent.

A questionnaire survey conducted by a group from the Shanghai Institute of Technology in the second half of 2016 found that about 24.7 percent of respondents accepted sea burials, a significant increase from the 4 percent acceptance rate in 2003.

Located on the outskirts of Shanghai, the Binhai Ancient Garden held a public ceremony for sea burials on the 25th, with the families of the deceased *** to send their condolences, since the first session in 2008, this is the 10th year that Shanghai has held a collective tribute to those buried at sea. Shanghai Binhai ancient garden general manager Li Zhongyu said, although the ashes are scattered into the sea, emotions can still be memorialized.

The Qingming Festival, Binhai ancient garden of the sea burial memorial garden, a steady stream of family members of sea burials rushed to pay tribute, the scene of white and yellow chrysanthemums, incense and candles, fruit plate, red-eyed family members gently caressing the memorial monument engraved with the name of their loved ones, suppressed crying, choking on the words of love.