HK seniors embrace retirement in GBA

At 4 pm on June 6, 89-year-old Li Yung-kan's son arrived at his home in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, to visit him after having left work in Hong Kong.

Li has spent the past 10 months living at the Hong Kong Jockey Club Shenzhen Society for Rehabilitation Yee Hong Heights, a nursing home in the city's scenic Yantian district.

Li's son frequently visits him in the afternoon and takes him out to dinner, where they chat and drink tea together. Their brief reunions always end at 7 pm.

"This is so that my son can return to his home in Hong Kong by 9 pm, which is really convenient," Li said.

With improvements in the traffic network and elderly care facilities in Chinese mainland cities that are part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, an increasing number of elderly Hong Kong residents like Li are choosing to move to such cities to retire.

"The surroundings here are beautiful. The place is large, the beds are clean and big, and there is also a lot of activity here," Li said as he explained why he selected Yee Hong Heights as his retirement residence.

Hong Kong is aging rapidly. Last year, the city had 1.64 million people age 65 and older, accounting for more than one-fifth of its population. By 2046, the share of residents in that age group will grow to over one-third — or 2.74 million — of the population, according to an official projection.

The growing number of seniors has placed unprecedented pressure on the city's elderly care homes.

The population census in 2021 revealed that over 330,000 people age 60 and older who lived at home required long-term care, but the city only had about 79,000 nursing facilities. As of January this year, an elderly person had to wait an average of 10 months before being assigned a government-subsidized spot in residential care homes.