On the morning of March 21, the bells of Shanghai Binhai Ancient Garden were solemn and the memorial service was affectionate. The public memorial ceremony for the 35th anniversary of burial at sea, hosted by the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, was solemnly held. More than 200 people from all walks of life gathered at the scene to pay respect and deep remembrance to the citizens who chose to be buried at sea over the past 35 years.
At the public memorial site, Ms. Chen, the representative of the family members buried at sea, told the story of her father who plowed the ocean and volunteered to be buried at sea. She said that Shanghai's comprehensive sea burial memorial facilities and series of activities allow ecological pioneers to be remembered and their spirits passed down, and also provide long-term sustenance for the families of those buried at sea.
On the day of the event, the second Shanghai Burial at Sea Cultural Week was launched simultaneously. This cultural week lasts for 17 days (March 21-April 6), covering the entire Qingming Festival cycle. The organizers have carefully set up theme exhibition areas such as the "Time Tunnel for the 35th Anniversary of Sea Burial", "Life Story Wall of Sea Burial Deceased", "Objective Exhibition of Changes in Sea Burial Work" and "Missing Lighthouse Outdoor Art Installation". They connect the "Tree" Memorial Forest, Sea Burial Memorial Garden and Sea Burial Monument and other commemorative facilities, allowing citizens to review the development process of sea burial in an immersive experience and express their grief.
It is understood that since the sea burial service was launched in 1991, Shanghai has escorted nearly 100,000 deceased people to carry out sea burial with ashes, and more than 340,000 family members participated in sea burial activities. In 2025, the number of sea burials of ashes in this city exceeded 10,000 for the first time, setting a record high. Among them, there were more than 1,000 sea burials of urban residents in the Yangtze River Delta region. Shanghai has now become one of the cities with the largest scale of sea burials in my country.
Shanghai's sea burial industry has developed steadily, benefiting from the continuous improvement of policy guarantees. This city has established a reward and subsidy policy for sea burials since 1999, and the standard has gradually increased from the initial 150 yuan/case to 3,000 yuan/case. In 2025, Shanghai has successively issued policy documents such as the "Opinions on Actively Promoting Sea Burial Services for Ashes" and "Notice on Improving the City's Funeral and Burial Policies to Benefit the People" to fully support sea burials in terms of service supply, process standardization, subsidy optimization, and mechanism improvement. Relevant documents also stipulate that from January 1, 2026, if the funeral director of a non-local registered deceased who is cremated in Shanghai chooses a collective burial at sea or other ecological burial methods, the funeral director does not need to bear the relevant expenses. Currently, there are more than 150 reservations for sea burials for deceased persons who meet the requirements and are not registered in this city.
This year is also the 1st anniversary of the establishment of Shanghai Burial at Sea Service Alliance. With Shanghai Feisi Sea Burial Service Co., Ltd. as the core, the service alliance links 13 funeral homes in the city, funeral hotline 962840 and many cemeteries in the city to form a "1+13+X" global sea burial service network. It achieves "full online coverage and offline offline services" for sea burial consultation and registration, significantly improving service accessibility and public satisfaction.
