China's first memorial hall for people buried at sea will open in the city in May, the funeral management division of the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau said Tuesday.

Shanghai sea Funeral Memorial Garden will be located in Shanghai Binhai Guyuan Cemetery in rural Fengxian District.

The new facility should be an ideal place for people to remember ancestors buried at sea, according to local funeral management officials.

Families can choose to inscribe the name of the deceased on a cenotaph, keep the names in memorial albums or place a picture in a memorial pagoda in the garden, officials said.

They can also watch funerals at sea from the garden or choose to buy a memorial stamp album, designed by the Shanghai Post Bureau, to commemorate their loved one.

"We felt a sense of loss after sending my father into the sea, because he's gone forever with nothing left for us," said Zhu Wenqing, whose 79-year-old father died this year and was buried into the sea on March 21. "But by putting his name and picture in the garden, we regained our sense of belonging," Zhu said.

Since 1991, 9,208 local residents have been buried at sea.

However, the figure only accounts for about 1 percent of the 100,000 people who die every year around the city, according to local authorities.

More than 80 percent of local residents still prefer a traditional funeral and burial on land, a procedure some worry uses too much land in a crowded city like Shanghai.

Some families in the city would choose to bury the bone ash under a tree and hang the name of the deceased on the tree to show their respect.

"Sea funerals are the best way to save land and the most environmentally friendly option," said Xu Guoxiang, manager of the Shanghai Feisi Sea Funeral Service Agency, the only local company to arrange burials at sea.

According to the manager, two sea funeral ceremonies would be held late next month for some 1,300 dead people.

(Shanghai Daily March 31, 2004)