Govt should put Funeral Law on agenda: experts

Experts are calling for China to speed up work on amending legislation on funerals.

The plea, made in a "green book" released on Tuesday on funeral affairs in 2012, comes just a week ahead of Tomb Sweeping Day, a traditional festival for Chinese people to visit memorials and graves.

The government should quickly put the Funeral Law on the agenda, according to the report, authored by a panel of experts from a research institute under the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

According to the report, Beijing provides the largest amount of subsidies to residents in terms of funeral affairs among provincial areas, followed by Tianjin.

Shenzhen is the only city that provides subsidies to non-native residents.

Meanwhile, land shortages for graveyards are now common in first-tier cities. In Nanjing, the land supply for graveyards is only enough for 10 years while the land supply for graveyard in Hefei, capital of Anhui province, is only sufficient for five years.