Pioneering success in rural nursing homes

On a sunny afternoon, Guo Jiujun, 85, weeded with a hoe in the vegetable garden while several meters away in a two-story building people with gray hair played cards or watched TV, talking and laughing.

The leisure activities and various entertainment rooms might feel like a recreation center in a modern city. But the nearby cornfield shows it is certainly set in a rural area.

It is the first of a new type of nursing home in Qiantun village in Hebei province. Built in 2008, its way of taking care of the elderly was praised in 2011 by Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo, who said the approach should be used in more rural areas in China.