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After living in a one-bedroom apartment for almost three decades in the southwestern corner of downtown Beijing， 78-year-old Liang Zhenwu， a retired company executive， feels the staircases leading to his home on the fifth floor grow longer every year.
Liang said that like many elderly residents in his community in Guangnei Subdistrict， he looks forward to the installment of an elevator in the six-story building. “But it won’t be easy， as the government probably won’t pay all the expenses of the reconstruction and many people living on the first and second floors won’t be willing to share the bill，” Liang said.
Liang， who only suffers from mildly high blood pressure， leads an independent life with his 80-year-old wife. He said that he enjoys his daily life， which includes one-hour of taiji， a Chinese martial art， in the morning with a group of friends in a nearby park， shopping for groceries， taking a nap and cooking. Two of the couple’s three sons live not far away and visit them regularly.
According to Liang， he has never thought about a possible change of lifestyle， but he complained about the difficulty in going to a public-funded care facility. “The waiting lists at some sought-after facilities are too long. A bed only becomes available after a current resident dies，” he said.
Liang was also amazed by the cost of private facilities. “Some friends recently checked into one and the two of them to- gether pay 8，900 yuan （$1，434） per month. I can’t possibly afford that，” Liang said. He revealed that the monthly pensions for him and his wife add up to around 7，000 yuan（$1，128） and his sons are not well-off.
Currently， China has 200 million people aged 60 and over. This number accounts for 14 percent of the nation’s total population， and is expected to surge to 400 million by 2050. In comparison， the country had a mere 40，000 nursing homes at the end of 2013， with less than 3.9 million beds available in those facilities.
Many cities including Beijing have proposed taking care of their elderly population by helping 90 percent of them spend their golden years in the comfort of their own homes. Of the remaining 10 percent， 6 percent would live mainly on care provided within the community and 4 percent would go to retirement homes.
In this context， the campaign to build virtual nursing homes， a new brand for government’s upgraded communitybased services for the elderly， has sprung up in provincial-level regions including Jiangsu， Gansu， Hunan， Anhui and Beijing， offering convenience and reducing demand for resources. Community services
Guangnei is home to a permanent population of more than 80，000， 26.3 percent of whom are elderly people， aged 60 or above. Less than 2 percent of the elderly there have chosen to live in care homes.
Like nearly 1，000 local households with elderly people in Guangnei， Liang’s apartment has a large buttoned telephone that was installed free of charge by the local government. The phone has shortcuts so that the couple can conveniently call their sons， call for first aid， consult physicians from community clinics， make reservations at hospitals， call a support center to receive other help and services and hire housekeepers.
Guangnei’s programs that provide care to elderly residents， branded under the local campaign of building virtual nursing homes starting in 2013， include establishing a unified database for the senior population and providing a free shopping service for seniors with mobility difficulties. They have also organized nearly 150 local businesses to offer seniors discounts， set up a day-care center for seniors incapable of independent living， arrange celebrations for the 60th wedding anniversary for old couples and offer psychotherapy to seniors.
Guangnei has nearly 500 households with “empty-nesters” aged 80 and above whose children are not living nearby. In 2013， the local government introduced a program that pairs all these households up with volunteering neighbors， who commit themselves on paper to checking up on the seniors every day by paying visits or calling them.
Zhang Zhihuai， a local civil affairs official， said that the program had saved the lives of at least two seniors who suddenly collapsed in their own homes but were discovered by volunteers who called for help.
Beijing’s Haidian District has built 60 community-based elderly service centers， which provide day-care services for disabled seniors and other services such as rehabilitation， counseling， medical consultation on chronic diseases and meal delivery at prices subsidized by the government. After building or renting these facilities， the district government has contracted their operation to three agencies. The district， which will be home to an elderly population of 460，000 in 2015， has an ambitious plan to build a network of such centers so that all seniors will be within walking distances of a center by 2015.
In other parts of China， governments are also looking to innovate with new programs. In September 2012， the government of Hedong District in Tianjin blazed the trail by contracting part of its virtual nursing home services to a home service company， Emotte， whose call center has a database of basic information and regular service needs of the“residents” of its virtual nursing home. The local government pays the bills for Emotte’s services for seniors with financial difficulties， sets up service standards and regularly evaluates the company’s performance.
Moreover， since the beginning of 2012 a total of 14 traditional nursing homes in Tianjin have begun offering door-to-door services to local seniors， a move that has proved economical while serving more customers.
“Building a virtual nursing home is both a low-cost and effective model for the government to take care of the aged，” said Mu Xiangyou， a deputy to the National People’s Congress， China’s top legislature， from Tianjin. Mu said that this new approach takes seniors’ emotional needs into consideration and will help meet the needs of China’s aging society.
Potential market
The fledgling industry of providing in-home care and services to the elderly is bound to boom as the market expands.
From the beginning of 2010， the Beijing Municipal Government began to issue a 100-yuan （$16.4） coupon to senior citizens over 80 every month， which can be used to pay at designated restaurants and for some domestic service companies.
Li Hongbing， Deputy Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Beijing， told state broadcaster China Central Television in August 2012 that the municipal government had granted coupons worth a total of 960 million yuan （$155 million）， which spurned another 1 billion yuan （$161 million） in consumption from the elderly and formed a new market worth 2 billion yuan （$322 million）.
Observers said that more resources from the private sector must be encouraged to enter the eldercare industry so as to ensure stable and sufficient investment in the long run.
Li Jiajun， President of Tianjin University， believes governments should initiate favorable policies and pump extra subsidies into elderly caretaking agencies as well as conventional care homes to assist their development.
“But governments are not omnipotent， and that means families and society should join together to contribute，” Li told Xinhua News Agency.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated in 2010 that China would need around 10 million professional elderly caretakers. In 2013 the ministry revealed that the country had less than 1 million elderly caretakers and only several thousand of them earned professional certification every year.
Zhang Surong， managing director of a domestic services company in Anshan City in northeast China’s Liaoning Province， said that China should step up vocational training for elderly caretakers. He also suggests the government consider subsidizing the income of caretakers in community elderly care centers to increase the staff’s stability and the profession’s attractiveness to younger people.
In addition， authorities should ramp up supervision and raise the threshold for domestic service providers to ensure quality， Li said. “To guarantee the quality of healthcare， meals and so on， certain institutions need to be set up to supervise the services，” he noted.
Liang said that like many elderly residents in his community in Guangnei Subdistrict， he looks forward to the installment of an elevator in the six-story building. “But it won’t be easy， as the government probably won’t pay all the expenses of the reconstruction and many people living on the first and second floors won’t be willing to share the bill，” Liang said.
Liang， who only suffers from mildly high blood pressure， leads an independent life with his 80-year-old wife. He said that he enjoys his daily life， which includes one-hour of taiji， a Chinese martial art， in the morning with a group of friends in a nearby park， shopping for groceries， taking a nap and cooking. Two of the couple’s three sons live not far away and visit them regularly.
According to Liang， he has never thought about a possible change of lifestyle， but he complained about the difficulty in going to a public-funded care facility. “The waiting lists at some sought-after facilities are too long. A bed only becomes available after a current resident dies，” he said.
Liang was also amazed by the cost of private facilities. “Some friends recently checked into one and the two of them to- gether pay 8，900 yuan （$1，434） per month. I can’t possibly afford that，” Liang said. He revealed that the monthly pensions for him and his wife add up to around 7，000 yuan（$1，128） and his sons are not well-off.
Currently， China has 200 million people aged 60 and over. This number accounts for 14 percent of the nation’s total population， and is expected to surge to 400 million by 2050. In comparison， the country had a mere 40，000 nursing homes at the end of 2013， with less than 3.9 million beds available in those facilities.
Many cities including Beijing have proposed taking care of their elderly population by helping 90 percent of them spend their golden years in the comfort of their own homes. Of the remaining 10 percent， 6 percent would live mainly on care provided within the community and 4 percent would go to retirement homes.
In this context， the campaign to build virtual nursing homes， a new brand for government’s upgraded communitybased services for the elderly， has sprung up in provincial-level regions including Jiangsu， Gansu， Hunan， Anhui and Beijing， offering convenience and reducing demand for resources. Community services
Guangnei is home to a permanent population of more than 80，000， 26.3 percent of whom are elderly people， aged 60 or above. Less than 2 percent of the elderly there have chosen to live in care homes.
Like nearly 1，000 local households with elderly people in Guangnei， Liang’s apartment has a large buttoned telephone that was installed free of charge by the local government. The phone has shortcuts so that the couple can conveniently call their sons， call for first aid， consult physicians from community clinics， make reservations at hospitals， call a support center to receive other help and services and hire housekeepers.
Guangnei’s programs that provide care to elderly residents， branded under the local campaign of building virtual nursing homes starting in 2013， include establishing a unified database for the senior population and providing a free shopping service for seniors with mobility difficulties. They have also organized nearly 150 local businesses to offer seniors discounts， set up a day-care center for seniors incapable of independent living， arrange celebrations for the 60th wedding anniversary for old couples and offer psychotherapy to seniors.
Guangnei has nearly 500 households with “empty-nesters” aged 80 and above whose children are not living nearby. In 2013， the local government introduced a program that pairs all these households up with volunteering neighbors， who commit themselves on paper to checking up on the seniors every day by paying visits or calling them.
Zhang Zhihuai， a local civil affairs official， said that the program had saved the lives of at least two seniors who suddenly collapsed in their own homes but were discovered by volunteers who called for help.
Beijing’s Haidian District has built 60 community-based elderly service centers， which provide day-care services for disabled seniors and other services such as rehabilitation， counseling， medical consultation on chronic diseases and meal delivery at prices subsidized by the government. After building or renting these facilities， the district government has contracted their operation to three agencies. The district， which will be home to an elderly population of 460，000 in 2015， has an ambitious plan to build a network of such centers so that all seniors will be within walking distances of a center by 2015.
In other parts of China， governments are also looking to innovate with new programs. In September 2012， the government of Hedong District in Tianjin blazed the trail by contracting part of its virtual nursing home services to a home service company， Emotte， whose call center has a database of basic information and regular service needs of the“residents” of its virtual nursing home. The local government pays the bills for Emotte’s services for seniors with financial difficulties， sets up service standards and regularly evaluates the company’s performance.
Moreover， since the beginning of 2012 a total of 14 traditional nursing homes in Tianjin have begun offering door-to-door services to local seniors， a move that has proved economical while serving more customers.
“Building a virtual nursing home is both a low-cost and effective model for the government to take care of the aged，” said Mu Xiangyou， a deputy to the National People’s Congress， China’s top legislature， from Tianjin. Mu said that this new approach takes seniors’ emotional needs into consideration and will help meet the needs of China’s aging society.
Potential market
The fledgling industry of providing in-home care and services to the elderly is bound to boom as the market expands.
From the beginning of 2010， the Beijing Municipal Government began to issue a 100-yuan （$16.4） coupon to senior citizens over 80 every month， which can be used to pay at designated restaurants and for some domestic service companies.
Li Hongbing， Deputy Director of the Civil Affairs Bureau of Beijing， told state broadcaster China Central Television in August 2012 that the municipal government had granted coupons worth a total of 960 million yuan （$155 million）， which spurned another 1 billion yuan （$161 million） in consumption from the elderly and formed a new market worth 2 billion yuan （$322 million）.
Observers said that more resources from the private sector must be encouraged to enter the eldercare industry so as to ensure stable and sufficient investment in the long run.
Li Jiajun， President of Tianjin University， believes governments should initiate favorable policies and pump extra subsidies into elderly caretaking agencies as well as conventional care homes to assist their development.
“But governments are not omnipotent， and that means families and society should join together to contribute，” Li told Xinhua News Agency.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs estimated in 2010 that China would need around 10 million professional elderly caretakers. In 2013 the ministry revealed that the country had less than 1 million elderly caretakers and only several thousand of them earned professional certification every year.
Zhang Surong， managing director of a domestic services company in Anshan City in northeast China’s Liaoning Province， said that China should step up vocational training for elderly caretakers. He also suggests the government consider subsidizing the income of caretakers in community elderly care centers to increase the staff’s stability and the profession’s attractiveness to younger people.
In addition， authorities should ramp up supervision and raise the threshold for domestic service providers to ensure quality， Li said. “To guarantee the quality of healthcare， meals and so on， certain institutions need to be set up to supervise the services，” he noted.