The old woman leans against the railing of her balcony, gazing idly at the queue of cars moving slowly below her building in northwestern Beijing. Now and then her wrinkled face lights up -- but disappointment almost always follows.

Sun Yuying, 78, is looking for her daughter's silver Volkswagen Jetta, though she knows it is not likely to appear on a weekday.

Granny Sun has been living alone in an "empty nest" for 15 years since her daughter got married. Her husband passed away even earlier.

Lu Jing, her daughter, recently bought an apartment for her, but the spacious flat fails to make the old woman happy.

"Nothing could please me more than having a meal together with my daughter and granddaughter," she says.

Sitting in her empty apartment, Granny Sun feels time passing slowly. Her sole companion is a colour television set, which is turned on as soon as she gets up in the morning.

She used to do exercises and go shopping with her neighbours when living in her former courtyard house. But now, with neighbours in the new environment rarely on speaking terms, she shuts herself up in her own world most of the time.

Lu visits her mother once every week with her husband and daughter. The visit is a great occasion for Granny Sun, who rises early, goes to the supermarket to buy groceries, then busies herself in the kitchen the whole morning.

Lu feels a bit guilty. "I wish I could spend more time with my mother," she says. "But I am always so busy and mom is unwilling to live with us."

Granny Sun is open-minded about this. "We are of different generations and cannot always see eye to eye in some respects," she says, adding that living separately is good for them all. Though feeling lonely, she believes "it is inevitable."

Granny Sun is one of the growing number of elderly people in China. According to the fifth national population census conducted in 2000, the number of Chinese over the age of 60 was 131 million, or 10.4 per cent of the country's total population. And the figure is growing at an annual rate of 3 per cent.

By that estimate, the number of senior citizens in China will reach 200 million by 2015, or 14 per cent of the total population. China is being swept by a silvery tide.

"In a way this represents great progress," says Du Peng, a professor of population studies and director of the Institute of Gerontology of the Renmin University of China in Beijing.

A primary reason for the fast aging of the population is that Chinese people now live much longer than before, according to the professor.

Over the last half-century the average life expectancy in China has continued to improve, from less than 40 years before 1949 when New China was founded to 70 in 1997. Average life expectancy in 2002 further rose to 71.4 years, approaching the level in developed countries. According to an estimate by the United Nations, people born in China in 2005 can expect to live to an average age of 72.

In China, the aging process is much faster than in developed countries. According to Tian Xueyuan, a population specialist, it will take China about 40 years for the proportion of people aged above 65 to rise from 7 per cent to 17 per cent of its population, whereas it takes twice that long for developed countries to do likewise.

Providing for a fast-growing population of elderly people is a colossal undertaking in China. In cities their care depends mainly on a social security system, whereas in rural areas elderly people are provided for mainly by their offspring and themselves. The local government provides for childless people of an advanced age. In more affluent rural areas, elders also receive pensions.

China has established a pension system for retirees combining a basic old-age pension, a supplementary old-age pension contributed by the employer and workers' individual old-age insurance payment. For elders in urban areas not covered by the pension system, the government provides a monthly cost of living allowance.

China has a fine tradition of respecting and providing for the elderly. According to a recent survey of total income for the aged, financial help from children accounted for 16.8 per cent in cities, 21 per cent in towns and 38.1 per cent in counties.

This means offspring support is of considerable importance in cities and of greater importance in the countryside. The government, therefore, promotes provision for the aged by the family and offspring. Experts say this policy has a good foundation and is also necessary in China.

Starlight programme

"Distant relatives are not as important as close neighbours" is a popular saying in China. The role of the community in caring for the aged is receiving increasing attention. The Ministry of Civil Affairs has launched a "Starlight Programme" nationwide. With an investment of 13.5 billion yuan, the government has built 32,490 "Starlight Homes for Senior Citizens" or community centres for elderly people, where people can have a rich social life. Activities at such centres include reading, doing fitness exercises, playing cards, painting pictures, creating calligraphic works and taking courses offered by colleges for senior citizens.

Establishing a community as the best friend of lonely seniors has not come a moment too soon. By 2003 the number of senior Chinese living in "empty nests" topped 23.4 million, or 23 per cent of the country's total senior population.

The situation is especially serious in big cities. For instance, of the 2.5 million senior citizens in Shanghai, over 40 per cent are "empty nesters." The percentage is 62 per cent in Tianjin and 40 per cent in Beijing.

Loneliness, such as what Granny Sun suffers, afflicts elderly people most, says Chen Yi, vice-chairman of the Beijing Aging Committee.

Today, many "empty nesters" like Granny Sun spend a lot of time at Starlight Homes for Senior Citizens, in the company of fellow senior citizens, pursuing something to their own liking.

Lu Jing has decided to have her mother enrolled in a shadow boxing class sponsored by the local community. "By enrolling in the class, she could not only do more outdoor exercises, which is good for her health, but also make friends with her fellow seniors so that she would no longer feel lonely," Lu says.

In many cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Fuzhou, an "assistance bell" has been installed in many "empty nests." When an emergency occurs an empty nester can press a button to request relevant services.

As the government pays more attention to meeting the needs of elderly people, volunteers have stepped in to offer free services. In Beijing alone, more than 300,000 volunteers, each paired with one or a couple of seniors in need of help, visit their charges regularly to clean their rooms, wash their clothes and provide emotional support. Many of the volunteers have had the "assistance bell" installed in their homes so they can provide timely aid.

Seniors' apartments

While many elders remain in their "empty nests," relying on community services to dispel their loneliness, other elderly people have opted to move in to so-called seniors' apartments, like Wang Chengzhen, a 74-year-old retired technician from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Being attended and interacting with fellow seniors is much better than staying alone at home," says the old man.

Partially paralyzed eight years ago, Wang was unable to live alone. His offspring once hired a nurse for him, but Wang soon discovered the nurse was secretly selling some of his medical equipment. That is when he moved to the Liulihe Seniors Apartments in the southern suburbs of Beijing.

Wang is quite satisfied with the living conditions, which include a small apartment with a sitting room, a bedroom and a bath. Every day attendants clean his room, bring him meals and do his laundry.

Statistics indicate an increasing number of elderly people prefer to enter a senior's apartment or a nursing home. In Shanghai, one-sixth of senior citizens over the age of 65 hunger for care or, in a bid to relieve the burden on their offspring, have expressed a willingness to live in nursing homes.

At present China has a developing country's economy, but the age structure of its population approaches that of developed countries.

"China cannot act as a welfare nation, with the government taking full responsibility to provide for all its senior citizens," says population specialist Tian Xueyuan. "Instead, it can only take the road of providing for the aged by a combination of resources, including society, the family and senior citizens themselves.

"China should have a social security system for the aged in which the three resources combine and complement one another. On the other hand, support from society, family support and self-support have different importance in this social security system, and their relative importance tends to change with the passing of time."

(China Daily August 6, 2004)