The authority in the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone in Fujian province recently issued a guideline that aims to create a comprehensive care service system for elderly people, Pingtan Times reported on March 19.

The guideline says Pingtan will provide senior care service in all urban communities, more than 90 percent of towns and more than 60 percent of villages by 2020, when there will be at least one nursing institution for every town with at least 35 beds reserved for extra care service.

Meanwhile, Pingtan will go ahead with construction of an information platform of senior care service. It will start with adoption of the national service hotline 12349 and gradually integrate all resources of senior care service in urban and rural areas on the platform by 2017.

In addition, Pingtan will promote education for the elderly by building colleges for them and encouraging them to work out more with an increasing number of fitness facilities to be set up.

Public nursing institutions in Pingtan with more than 150 beds will open a clinic and, if possible, a nursing home or geriatric hospital.

To encourage the establishment of private nursing institutions with at least 50 beds, the government will subsidize 5,000 to 10,000 yuan for every bed, depending on whether the location is on lease or owned by the service agency. The institutions will also get subsidies from 400 to 800 yuan for every underprivileged person they accept.

Pingtan will also give the green light to overseas investors who want to independently or jointly set up a nursing institution. Authorities say they hope the investors can bring in advanced management and provide upscale service for economically comfortable families.

By luring investments from Taiwan, Pingtan plans to become a cross-Straits base for senior care industries cooperation as well as a destination for elderly tourists, according to the guideline.

Aging Pingtan

As of 2014, there were some 53,400 people above the age of 60 in Pingtan, accounting for 12.8 percent of the total population, official figures show, indicating that Pingtan has become an aging society.

The number of people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s are 25,000, 16,300, 9,900 and 2,100, respectively, along with 34 centenarians. Among them, 38,000 live together with their family, 15,000 live alone or only with their spouse, while the remaining 386 are in nursing institutions.

There are currently 12 public nursing institutions with 367 beds and a private one with 230 beds, meaning the ratio of one nursing bed to every 1,000 elderly people stands at 1.05, far from the national average of 25.43.

From：China Daily