"I sold my house in Beijing and decided to retire in Tianjin," 73-year-old Shi Jichun said with excitement.

Shi used to work for Beijing Film Studio and stayed in a nursing home in Changping district, Beijing, for about six years.

Shi explained that he and his wife used to live in a small flat with one bedroom and one living room in Beijing, which cost them 6,000 yuan per month. But now they can enjoy their life in a 90-square-meter flat in Wuqing, Tianjin, which only costs 4,000 yuan per month.

"Wuqing is pretty close to Beijing but the environment is much better than my hometown. I've retired now and I don't think I have to keep staying in Beijing," Shi said.

Yang Jinhui, president of the Nursing Home of Wuqing District, said that the nursing facility was established in August 2013, and offers services for elderly people in Beijing and Tianjin.

More and more Beijing seniors are coming to the nursing home and to date, 70 to 80 percent of the elderly living in the institution are from Beijing, Yang added.

Wang Xianxing and his wife, another Beijing senior couple in their 70s, also decided to move to a Tianjin nursing home. They used to live in a nursing institution in Beijing but couldn't bear the small living space and the serious smog anymore.

They moved to the Tianjin nursing institution after it became an experimental nursing unit for seniors in other cities.

"Our son can come to visit us frequently because of the short distance and the convenient transportation between the two cities," he added.

Wang added that "shuttle buses are arranged between Beijing and Tianjin to make it convenient for seniors to conduct health examinations back in their hometown because of the universality of the Beijing and Tianjin medical insurance systems."

As the development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integration continues, such health care problems will be resolved and more Beijing seniors will be able to live in Tianjin without worrying about medical troubles.

A staffer at a nursing institution completes a puzzle with an elderly woman. [Photo/Xinhua]