Elderly woes

After spending the Spring Festival holidays at her hometown in Jiangxi Province, 50-year-old Yuan Jinping moved to her elder son's place in Beijing to look after her 1-year-old granddaughter. Although it takes an entire day to travel the 1,400 kilometers from her hometown to Beijing by train, this is already the third time over the past year that Yuan has come to Beijing. Taking turns with her husband, the old couple spent the entire year separated with one back in their hometown taking care of their 3-year-old grandson and the other in Beijing caring for their younger granddaughter.

The mother of two sons who have managed to the big city and start families, Yuan is the envy of many of her friends, especially of the fact that she has become a grandmother at such a young age. With nothing left to worry about, it seems Yuan has everything she could wish for in her life. 

At least that's how she thought at the beginning. However, Yuan soon discovered the arrival of her two grandchildren was like the opening of Pandora's box as her life entered a brand new phase containing a number of confusing problems waiting for her to unravel. 

For the children

While the Chinese concept of growing old traditionally meant someone who heads back to their hometowns and peacefully spends their days in comfort, for Yuan and her husband this seems to have become an impossible dream, at least for now. With her oldest son living in Beijing and the other in Nanchang, the capital city of Jiangxi Province, nearly 100 km from her hometown, Yuan has basically devoted all her time over the past two years in traveling between these three places to take care of her pregnant daughter-in-law or grandchildren.

"It's really much more exhausting than when I was working," said Yuan, who retired much earlier than most people due to the lackluster performance of her company. "Before I had more time to take a break and spend time on my hobbies. Now I'm occupied all the time and I shoulder bigger responsibilities since both of my grandsons are so little and prone to injury," said Yuan.

Adding to her stress, according to Yuan, is the frequent trips she has to make to different places. "Each time I go to Beijing or Nanchang, I fell like I'm going to prison for a while since I don't know anybody there except my family and their houses are much smaller than my home back in my hometown," Yuan told the Global Times.

However, despite being tough this was a sacrifice she was willing to make, since Yuan understood that her sons were still just beginning their career and hiring a nanny in these cities would just add more financial pressure. Feeling that there seems to be no other option, she chose to come help out. 

Yuan's oldest son, Wu Hua, also feels that asking his mother come was the most optimal choice, but still he sometimes worries that she feels too lonely when he and his wife both head out to work. 

"Usually each time she comes here, she stays for no more than three months. It's like the maximum amount of time she can stand being here," said Wu. "Given the loneliness that comes with having no acquaintances to talk to, and the friction with my wife when it comes to lifestyle differences, living here all the time isn't possible for her."

Expanding population

Despite the various problems the elderly encounter when they come to live with their children in big cities, an increasing number of the elderly are joining this group. Statistics show that in Shanghai, the aged floating population has grown to more than 160,000, while in Guangdong Province, this number is more than 100,000. Most of the group are either there to take care of their grandchildren or help their children or daughter-in-laws take care of their homes.

With China's increasing urbanization and social mobility, the migration of the country's aging population has become a distinct social phenomenon, according to Li Shan, a professor from Dalian Maritime University.

Not just contributing to the stability of families, this floating population has actually taken on a huge responsibility if looked at from a national level. Unlike some developed countries, China doesn't have prevalent daycare that can handle children under 3. 

"We can either hire a nanny or ask our parents to look after the baby," said Wu. "Even when young couples hire a nanny, they usually will still ask one of their parents to stay with the nanny to keep an eye on him or her."

Even when children are finally old enough to enter kindergarten, usually at the age of 3, the time difference between when young parents go to and get off work and when their children go to kindergarten can make picking up kids difficult. This is one of the major reasons that you can always see a group of grandparents waiting outside kindergartens every evening around five. 

To help relieve some of this pressure, the government has tried to step in. The Beijing municipal government began building some community daycare for young children back in 2008 with the goal of building 200 such facilities in two years. However, it seems that this plan has fallen by the wayside.  

"I hope that when my boy finally enters kindergarten at 3, my wife and I will be able to fully handle picking him up ourselves and my parents won't have to travel so frequently," said Wu. "After the trouble these two years have brought to them, their health isn't what it used to be, and it's very troublesome for people from outside the city to see a doctor here."