(Xinhua) BEIJING – Wang Jianping, 63, a healthy retiree from a Beijing-based enterprise, has recently begun searching for nursing homes.<\/p>\n
“When I cannot move, I will live in the old people’s home and will not inconvenience my children,” Wang said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n