Bigger push expected for cremation, improved funeral services

The Ministry of Civil Affairs will make deeper reforms in the face of a decline in the cremation rate, which dropped to 49.5 percent in 2012 from 53 percent in 2005, and further improve funeral and interment services for ordinary people, Minister Li Liguo said on Thursday in Beijing.

"At least one funeral home should be set up at each county in cremation zones," Li said at the fourth national funeral and interment work conference. "Efforts should be made to increase the funeral service stations moderately, establish funeral services platforms in the services network, plan and build columbaria scientifically and control the number and area of the cemeteries."

Li said the average annual cremation rate across the nation should increase by 0.5 to 1 percent per year before 2020. Sea burial, tree burial and other "green burials" are expected to reach 40 percent in 2020.