(Xinhua) BEIJING – Wang Jianping, 63, a healthy retiree from a Beijing-based enterprise, has recently begun searching for nursing homes.
“When I cannot move, I will live in the old people’s home and will not inconvenience my children,” Wang said.
Her experience of caring for her 89-year-old mother-in-law, who suffers from senile dementia over the past 14 years, prompted her to “search for nursing homes as early as possible,” she said.
As China marks Seniors Day Saturday, or the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, experts have called for an improvement in the country’s services to the aged, especially at a time when the “only child” generation is finding it increasingly difficult to care for four parents (their own and their spouse’s parents).
The Office of the China National Committee on Ageing said the number of people aged 60 or above stood at 167 million in 2009, or 12.5 percent of the 1.3-billion population.
Continue: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-10/16/content_11418488.htm