On the eve of the Qingming Festival, the Chinese government is encouraging burials at sea. The Qingming Festival is one where people visited the graves of deceased relatives. The offer of free sea burials by the Chinese government is part of an effort to preserve land for more economically productive uses, rather than use it as a cemetery. “Those opting for burial at seat will save 1 square of land in Shanghai, and that would cost about 24,000 yuan [almost $4,000] if it was a burial plot,” the city’s director of funeral management, Lu Chunling, told the newspaper at the time.”
Further Reading: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-04/china-offers-freebies-to-promote-burials-at-sea