Indeed, Chinese economic journals regularly cite retirement homes as good investments. But while retirement homes are winning more acceptance, old prejudices haven't been totally eradicated. Early this year, for example, Beijing teacher Yuan Guozhi decided to send his parents to a retirement home after his father was diagnosed with a serious illness. His brothers and sisters objected, as did the two old people, but as the eldest son Yuan had the final say. After two months, Yuan's younger brother took his parents home with him, alienating his own wife and creating a rift with his brother that still hasn't healed.
China faces other barriers to caring for the elderly.
Private homes can cater for only the relatively well-off, while the cost of providing state care for all pensioners threatens to cripple future taxpayers. There are now 10 people of working age for every pensioner. In 50 years' time, there will be just three workers for every pensioner. So the government is hoping increasingly to spread the burden across the family, the state and the private sector. To do this, Wei explains, it will pursue strategies like transporting the elderly from their homes to centres where they can eat and take part in activities every day, before returning to their own homes at night.