From the Chinese press

Senior citizens need company

A 71-year-old living alone in Chongqing reportedly called the 110 emergency hotline 1,483 times in one year. Although most of the time he called the hotline for trivial reasons, such as not being able to find his keys or hurting himself in a fall, the real reason was that he needed to talk to someone because he felt lonely, says an article on gmw.cn. Excerpts:

The senior citizen in Southwest China's Chongqing called the hotline almost four times a day on average simply because he needed to talk to someone to overcome his loneliness. His case may be rare, but it reflects one of the biggest problems facing senior citizens living alone. This is serious problem because the population of elderly people in China is set to reach 200 million by the end of this year and grow by about 8 million every year.