Wang Jianxia, a former needle worker, has operated the first privately owned retirement home in Qingdao for a decade. (CHEN RAN)

In 1997, few people truly believed that Wang Jianxia, then 45, who had been laid off from her job as a needle worker at Dongfang Knit Goods Mill in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, was capable of opening the city's first privately owned retirement home by herself.

Twelve years later, on March 16, Wang's retirement home will celebrate its 10th anniversary, and Wang is looking forward to another decade for her promising career.

A self-employment business

Born in December 1952, Wang is the third of seven children. She had to take care of her paralyzed mother from the age of 9 and became a handicraft worker at 14. Before entering the mill, Wang worked on building construction sites despite her thin frame.

Wang's employment came to an abrupt end in 1994, when mill restructuring forced half the staff into early retirement; her salary was reduced to 800 yuan ($100) a month. "It seemed as if my life was over," Wang recalled. She was reluctant to stay at home, so she looked for part-time jobs as a babysitter, housekeeper and cleaner.

In 1997, Wang worked for a man who ran his own business. "I thought it would be good to do something I wanted, so I decided to take a shot at running my own business," Wang told Beijing Review. "I had learned from the media that Chinese society was aging, so I thought it would be good to open a retirement home."

There were only two state-owned retirement homes in Qingdao at the time. With her only daughter by her side, Wang set about obtaining approval for her project, ignoring the skepticism from her husband and other family members. She inquired at the civil affairs bureau in her residence district and received a license. "I was told that the retirement home would be a dead loss, but I didn't care," Wang said. "The best I could do was break even, but I would have been happy even if I suffered a heavy loss. I had pensions and the worst-case scenario would be starting over again." In October 1998, she rented a two-story building at No.10 Chongqing South Road for 40,000 yuan ($5,000) per year and furnished it, using money that should have been reserved for her daughter's wedding.

On March 16, 1999, Wang's retirement home, the first of its kind in Qingdao, officially opened for business.

Bittersweet memories

The accommodation fee Wang set--500 yuan ($62) per person per month--was far from enough to cover daily expenses. To supplement her income, Wang prepared box lunches downstairs for nearby students and later joined her sister-in-law upstairs as a nurse.

"It was not easy taking care of elderly strangers," Wang said. "To be honest, I could neither bear to see the messes they left in the toilet, nor clean their smelly bodies. But it was my retirement home, and I was responsible for taking care of them."

Wang's ambitions suffered a blow in March 2000, not quite a year after opening, when she discovered that a senile dementia sufferer had disappeared. The man, surnamed Shen, was paralyzed before he came to the house, but he had regained the ability to walk during his three-month stay. Wang reported Shen's disappearance to his family soon after she learned of it, and searched for him around the clock.