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China had 169 million people over 60 by the end of 2009, or 12 percent of the population. That number will jump to 250 million people by 2025.
Ageing China offers silver lining for investors
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Retired professor Chen Chongyu and his wife Liu Zhenjuan dreamed of coming back to China from their daughter's home in France, but until last year the couple had nowhere to go.
That changed when they found Cherish-Yearn, an upscale retirement community on the fringes of Shanghai and a pioneer in catering to China's prosperous elderly.
Businesses are just starting to tap the rapidly expanding senior citizens' market -- China's new silver industry.
"Every year we would come back to China, and we would visit retirement homes. But we couldn't find anything," said 79-year-old Chen, a history professor who specialized in the French revolution.
"When we finally found this place we felt we could return."
China's traditional model of children living with their elderly parents is under siege, thanks to 30 years of the one-child policy and rapid urban migration.
Leaving their daughter's home in France, Liu, 74, and Chong paid 690,000 yuan (US$104,545) to move into a three-room apartment on Cherish-Yearn's beautifully sculpted campus.
An annual fee of 88,000 yuan covers basic medical and cleaning services, and various activities.
China had 169 million people over 60 by the end of 2009, or 12 percent of the population. That number will jump to 250 million people by 2025.
And their spending power is rising. Chinese senior citizens command about 300 billion to 400 billion yuan in annual disposable income, according to Kunal Sinha, chief knowledge officer at marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather in Shanghai.
That will rise to 5 trillion yuan over the next three decades.
"The whole marketing world is obsessed with young people. The reality for China, the demographic change, is that in 15 years' time, the number of young people is going to halve, it's going to be 50 percent of what it is today," Sinha told Reuters.
"The number of senior people is only going to double."
.
Ageing China offers silver lining for investors
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Retired professor Chen Chongyu and his wife Liu Zhenjuan dreamed of coming back to China from their daughter's home in France, but until last year the couple had nowhere to go.
That changed when they found Cherish-Yearn, an upscale retirement community on the fringes of Shanghai and a pioneer in catering to China's prosperous elderly.
Businesses are just starting to tap the rapidly expanding senior citizens' market -- China's new silver industry.
"Every year we would come back to China, and we would visit retirement homes. But we couldn't find anything," said 79-year-old Chen, a history professor who specialized in the French revolution.
"When we finally found this place we felt we could return."
China's traditional model of children living with their elderly parents is under siege, thanks to 30 years of the one-child policy and rapid urban migration.
Leaving their daughter's home in France, Liu, 74, and Chong paid 690,000 yuan (US$104,545) to move into a three-room apartment on Cherish-Yearn's beautifully sculpted campus.
An annual fee of 88,000 yuan covers basic medical and cleaning services, and various activities.
China had 169 million people over 60 by the end of 2009, or 12 percent of the population. That number will jump to 250 million people by 2025.
And their spending power is rising. Chinese senior citizens command about 300 billion to 400 billion yuan in annual disposable income, according to Kunal Sinha, chief knowledge officer at marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather in Shanghai.
That will rise to 5 trillion yuan over the next three decades.
"The whole marketing world is obsessed with young people. The reality for China, the demographic change, is that in 15 years' time, the number of young people is going to halve, it's going to be 50 percent of what it is today," Sinha told Reuters.
"The number of senior people is only going to double."
.
