Beijing Women and Children's is one of the capital's more progressive hospitals, and allows one parent to sleep in a child's room on a cot. But there are few distractions from the hospital tedium, and many of the children are lethargic with drugs, pain or boredom.

"I would really like to have music in all the children's wards, as well as cartoon books and DVDs," said head nurse Chen Jianjun, who also is an associate professor of nursing at Peking University.