Mobile bathing means better care for China's elderly

"Bathing is a very private thing," she said. "You need a good attitude and some strategies to help the elderly accept your service."

One of the most difficult clients Yu has served is a paralyzed man. Because he couldn't lift his feet to enter the RV, the bath was provided in his own house. "A bath in my own house costs 299 yuan!" she recalled him yelling repeatedly while glaring at the bathers.

Yu and her colleagues tried to soothe him. They called four assistants to lift him gently from his bed with a towel, laid him in an inflatable tub, helped him take off his clothes one piece at a time, covered his private parts as he requested and scooped warm water to rinse his body.