China's nursing homes falling behind

Decorated with colorful plastic flowers, red lanterns and artificial dragons, a nursing home in downtown Beijing held a party on Monday for its residents to celebrate the coming Lunar Year of Dragon, which begins on Jan. 23.

The nursing home's 220 current residents have been fortunate to enjoy such festivities, as applications for admission have been flooding into the nursing home.

"Many people have been on our waiting list for more than a year. One of them passed away while waiting," said Li Shuyun, an employee of the Beijing Niujie Street Ethnic Nursing Home, which opened in 2008.

For Li and many other elderly care providers in an aging China, the problem is a simple one, but still difficult to solve - there are simply not enough nurses or beds to accomodate the country's elderly population.

"You cannot ignore the situation. The aging population is growing so fast that the country needs to figure out how to take care of the elderly," said Yin Zhigang, a professor from the Beijing Institute of Population Research.