Too few beds to meet rapidly growing need

Nursing homes serving China's growing aging population have witnessed great opportunities for expansion, yet have a long way to go to come close to meeting the increasing demand.

One of the chief problems the country is currently trying to solve is a shortage of beds and services for elderly residents in need of care. By the end of 2013, around 42,500 organizations provided 4.93 million beds for 200 million such people, a person-to-bed ratio of 41-to-1.

Beijing has 416 nursing homes, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The capital has more beds in each nursing home than anywhere else in the country, averaging 284 beds in each at the end of 2013, 2.7 times the national average of 102.