Vanke, a subsidiary of Vanke Group, one of the biggest real estate developers in China, signed contracts with 12 local Ningbo communities last month to bring government-supported home-based senior care services to local senior citizens. Participating communities can be found in the central districts of Jiangdong and Haishu. Providing medical services to elderly people in their own homes is seen as a method to deal with the disparity between China’s growing senior population and the lack of specialized elder care institutions. According to the Ningbo Civil Affairs Bureau, there were over 1.3 million people over the age of 60 in the city by the end of last year, accounting for some 22 percent of the total population. The bureau further predicts that by 2020, the population of local seniors will reach 1.6 million and represent a quarter of the population. “On the one hand, elderly who wish to occupy a bed in specialized homes have to wait many years to enroll. On the other hand, it is impossible to expand elder care infrastructure and institutions in places such as our Drum Tower Community, which is located downtown where every square meter of land costs a lot of money,” said Xu Yabo, secretary of the party committee in the Zhongshan neighborhood of the Drum Tower Community, Haishu District. At the same time though, home-based services are what many older people would prefer over placement in facilities for the elderly. “Some old people don’t want to stay in places such as . . . . . read more