Charting a new course for a happy old age

Huang Magan operates a loom at age 107 in 2012 in the Bama Yao autonomous county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, a famous 'longevity' area. [Photo/Xinhua]

Striking a balance

The best-known long-life areas, such as the Bama Yao autonomous county in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and Hetian, a city in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, have been popular tourist spots for many years, but their relative isolation means that they can be inconvenient places to live.

As a result, when older people are choosing a new place to settle down, many attempt to strike a balance between convenience and beautiful, natural, pollution free surroundings.

"I chose to buy a house in Huangshan, a city in Anhui province, not only for the good quality of the air and water, but also because the high-speed train can take me from Beijing to the city in six hours," said Wang Jing, 52, from Beijing.

Wang started planning her retirement six years ago when her daughter enrolled at a university in Hefei, the capital of Anhui. She visited Huangshan several times before she decided to buy a house in the city.

"When I retire at age 55, my daughter will have reached the right age for marriage. By that time, I will no longer need the house in Beijing so I will give it to her and I will move to Huangshan," she said.

The journey time of six hours by train would allow Wang to travel between Huangshan and the capital without too much difficulty. Even if she needs to babysit a grandchild someday, she is confident that her daughter and future son-in-law will be happy to let their child spend the winters in a place that's relatively unaffected by air pollution.

Zhang Ping, an expert in commercial property, said provinces such as Yunnan and Hainan, and cities such as Xiamen, Fujian, and Zhuhai in Guangdong province, have booming housing markets for senior buyers. "Convenient locations, good infrastructure and high-quality healthcare are equally as important as the environment for older people when they are choosing a place to live after retirement," said Zhang, chair of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' China Commercial Property Professional Group Committee, the Chinese branch of an international professional body that accredits professionals in the land, property and construction sectors.

Wang Guiyun, 72, from Hebei province, foresaw the growth of the seniors' property market more than 10 years ago, so she bought a house in Haikou, the capital of Hainan.

"At that time, few people were really aware of the pollution problem, but every year many of my friends relocated to spend the winter in warmer cities, a practice that was believed to benefit people with cardiovascular disease," she said.

"I visited Haikou and found that the city was full of nonnative seniors living in rented houses. I bought a house here because the continuous influx of seniors means property prices are unlikely to fall," she said.

Media reports show that the average price of a house in Haikou quadrupled between 2002 and 2011, but remained relatively stable in the years that followed.

Despite the rising number of elderly people seeking a pastoral retired life, China's insurance regulations, which prevent people from claiming reimbursement of medical expenses in hospitals outside of the place they made social security payments when they were working, will be the biggest obstacle, according to Zhang, the realty expert.

"The problem needs to be addressed via joint efforts by the government and developers to develop properties to add value in geriatric care, tourism and healthcare. Additions such as these would produce the most attractive properties in the future," she said.

Contact the writer at chengyingqi@chinadaily.com.cn