In a sharp break from the centuries-old practice of burying the dead, more and more Chinese people are planting trees where they have sprinkled their relatives' ashes to protect the environment.

"Tree burials have spread in China over the last 10 years, especially in major cities such as Shenyang and Guangzhou," said Gao Yueling, a senior official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

In Northeast China's Shenyang, tree burials now account for more than 50 per cent of funerals every year. There have been more than 50,000 tree burials since the early 1990s in the city, according to official statistics.

"I have asked my son to plant a tree rather than building a tomb after I die," said 65-year-old Liu Bin, a retired English teacher in Beijing. "I do not want to be a burden or pollute the environment after I die."

Chinese people have become more aware of environmental problems in the last few years such as floods, sandstorms across North China and landslides.

Gao said public campaigns have helped change the desire to bury people, which Chinese people believed was the best way to bless the dead.

This change is easing concerns about the country's shortage of arable land, which has to provide for 1.3 billion people. China is also confronting an aging population which causes extra problems.

In Beijing for example, there is expected to be 10,000 more cremations each year over the next 10 years, which will put a big pressure on cemeteries as the amount of land to be used for funerals is being hotly debated.

"If we continue with burials, there will be a big clash between using land for the living or the dead. We need to change practices to save land and to protect the environment," said a cemetery operator in Beijing.

Chinese people are now more aware of the problems associated with burials. Cremations now account for 46 per cent of funerals and a majority of large and medium-sized cities have stopped burials altogether, official statistics indicate.

Calls for reform have even attracted attention from China's top legislature, the National People's Congress. A growing number of suggestions filed by legislators talk about changing funeral practices to take account of environmental protection.

"Environmental-friendly burial practices such as sea burials have become popular in China. The move is very encouraging," said Gao, who has tracked on the burial issue for years.