老年人在哪里安享晚年?

Luo Zhuoxiong is head of a government-funded nursing home in Shenzhen in southern China's Guangdong Province. He says every year, the nursing home has about 50 to 60 beds available when current residents pass away. But now more than 1,600 senior citizens are applying for the vacancies.

"Since April 2006, these people have started to wait for the vacancies. They have left us their contact information; however, we have yet find vacancies for them."

Eighty-year-old Tang Zhongzhi has been living in the nursing home since 2003. He says he has registered both his son and daughter on the nursing home's waiting list.

"My son is already 53 years old, and my daughter has reached the age of 50. As I know how difficult it is to enter the nursing home, I want to let them consider where they want to spend their twilight years ahead of time."

Media reports say the number of Shenzhen citizens who are above the age of 65 will reach 300,000 by the year 2020, while the number of seniors without household registrations in the city will exceed 600,000.

Who will take care of the large number of elderly residents has become a topic of major concern.

Because of a shortage of public nursing homes, many privately owned nursing centers have entered the field. More and more capital has been invested in the senior care industry.
 
Ye Zhiliang is the manager of a privately owned nursing home in Shenzhen. He says his most pressing problem is renovating the equipment in his nursing home.

"The car has been used for 11 years, it doesn't run any more. Like the car, much of the other equipment in our nursing home needs to be urgently renovated, but we can't afford the cost. We can only rely on support from some enterprises."

Unlike public nursing homes that receive funds and support from the government, privately owned nursing centers must rely on donations from enterprises.

Ye's nursing home has been operating for 11 years and has about 100 beds. He says during the first five years of operation, he couldn't even make ends meet. But nowadays, with 90 elderly citizens living here, the nursing home doing well.

Ye says the operation of his nursing home is comparatively better than other privately owned nursing homes.

"Currently among privately owned nursing homes, some are good; others are substandard. Also the location of the nursing homes determines their popularity. For example, the nursing homes located in the downtown area are often fully occupied, but those in the suburban area are hardly accepted by senior citizens."

Industry insider Luo Zhuoxiong says there is a phenomenon in Shenzhen as more seniors are on the waiting lists of public nursing home, while the beds in privately owned nursing home remain unoccupied.

For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.