Residents of Wanggui Xincun enjoy themselves at the community club. Various clubs in the community offer entertainment.

Wrestling is a traditional sport on the grassland of the autonomous region. [Yu Changjun / for China Daily]

A perpetual spring

In recent years, nursing homes have emerged as one solution to the problem of the aging population. In Dongsheng, the services for senior citizens focus not only on providing meals and comfortable accommodation, but also on improving the quality of life.

The Xinhai Yihe nursing home covers an area of 54,000 sq m and consists of four types of building - single villas, terraced housing, apartment buildings and a nursing center. It also boasts a hospital and a supermarket. A hot spring, banks and a community center for the elderly are being built.

In the center's indoor garden, trees and flowers flourish while pavilions, lakes and bridges have been built to make the atmosphere feel like a perpetual spring. "The average age of the more than 300 residents is 75. The view out of the window is pretty dull and can make the residents depressed, so the garden has been designed to cheer them up," said Li Chang, marketing director of the home.

The suites in the center vary from one- to three-bedrooms and prices for accommodation and three meals a day range from 1,500 to 10,000 yuan per month. Each suite has air-conditioning, a refrigerator, a microwave and a TV. The washroom is equipped with handrails and emergency buttons. Wheelchairs are provided free of charge for those that need them.

Cai Shoubin, 76, and his wife Yang Wenyu, 74, moved to the center from their home in the center of Ordos a year ago. Their two daughters and son work in Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong province.

With a combined monthly pension of 9,000 yuan, the couple said they prefer to spend 3,000 yuan on nursing home fees rather than hiring a helper. "All the facilities here are for senior people. We have the nurses and also make more friends," said Cai.

Every morning, the elderly couple plays billiards and table tennis for two hours. In the afternoons, they spend 30 minutes relaxing in a massage chair provided free of charge.

According to Li, the nursing home also provides services to an increasing number of elderly residents living in other districts or towns. All the clients have their own health files, which are updated every week. Their children can see the documents online.