Luan Bingmai, 73, is one of more than 3,000 seniors in Tianjin to benefit from this government initiative. After her health took a turn for the worst a few years ago, she found herself unable to complete her daily chores. So she signed up for in-home help, and now gets meals delivered to her doorstep by the staff of a care home.
In addition, the elderly population of Tianjin can receive health care, medication and consultation, all in the comfort of their own homes.
According to the government guideline, home-based care should be a fundamental part of the elderly care system.
Nursing facilities and care homes should be the last resort, said Gao Yunxia from China Philanthropy Research Institute. Government-run nursing homes should give priority to the poor, the disabled and those of advanced age, she added.
Although government financial support has been steady over the past few years, the vice minister acknowledged that more private funding is needed to ensure seniors "live happy, long lives and gracefully grow old."
The migration of tens of millions of farmers to the cities has exacerbated the problem, leaving many elderly people without the usual family-support structure. The predicament these farmers face is that once they become too old to work the land, they lose their only source of income.
In Qingdao in Shandong Province, east China, residents have begun to transfer their land rights to a village cooperative in return for elderly care.
The investor, Huang Duwei said he planned to use the land to grow vegetables and rear livestock on a large scale. "The money we make will be invested into a nursing home for the people that once worked the land."
Gao Liping, a researcher with Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, said this project would help many of the countryside's left-behind people, who have no pension to support them in old age.
The city is also offering insurance to farmers that will provide a financial cushion should their health deteriorate.
