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Chinese people have traditionally relied on their children to help them in old age, and institutions for the elderly have not been widely accepted. However, things are changing.
With a soaring senior population and most adults working full time, attitudes toward filial piety and old age have shifted, fueling a rapidly growing elderly care industry.
The number of people age 60 or over in China reached 212 million at the end of 2014, accounting for 15.5 percent of the country's population, with the number of disabled elderly people approaching 40 million, statistics from the National Health and Family Planning Commission showed.
The United Nations has predicted that people over age 65 will account for 18 percent of China's population by 2030, double the number in 2011.
By 2050, China is expected to have nearly 500 million people over 60, exceeding the population of the United States, according to UN predictions.
The aging population has brought greater demand for elderly care services. According to a report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Chinese people will spend over 10 trillion yuan ($1.54 trillion) from 2016 to 2020 on elderly care, increasing 17 percent per year.
According to Kang Yanling, head of an elderly care facility in downtown Beijing, after an initial 5 million yuan investment, investors put in another 7 million yuan early in 2015, doubling the center's floor space and increasing beds to 212 after they saw great business potential in the aging population.
"We've made little profit, but I'm optimistic about the industry's future, as elderly care services will be trending everywhere," said Kang.
As of March, a total of 31,833 elderly care institutions were registered in China, with as many as 5.84 million beds available, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
The government has also issued policies to improve the elderly care system, including opening up the market and encouraging private and overseas investment, which were included in China's five-year development proposal.
Meanwhile, there are still difficulties for owners of elderly care institutions to overcome, not least of which is a lack of nurses.
China has around 290,000 elderly care nurses, which is far from sufficient to care for the number of disabled seniors in the country, according to Zou Ming, vice-minister of civil affairs.
The ministry has worked with education authorities to develop majors related to elderly care in vocational schools, as well as to encourage cooperation between schools and elderly care institutions.
