The state has promulgated a series of policies and documents, such as Opinions on Promoting Urban Community Construction Nationwide and Opinions on Strengthening and Improving Community Services, and has taken active measures, increased its input, strengthened community construction and service work, so as to provide diversified and more convenient services to community residents, including the aged, and to constantly improve the social service environment for them. By the end of 2005, there were 195,000 urban community service amenities and 8,479 comprehensive social service centers in China. Family visits, regular service provided at fixed venues, and mobile service are available in most places, providing care and housekeeping services, emergency aid, and other free or reduced-payment services for the aged. In the period 2001-04, the Chinese Government invested a total of 13.4 billion yuan in the "Starlight Program?to build community welfare service facilities for seniors. The program helped to set up 32,000 "Starlight Centers for Seniors,?which provide family visit, emergency aid, day care, health and healing services, and organize recreational activities, benefiting over 30 million elderly people. In 2005, there was an average of 1.32 urban welfare institutions for seniors in every community committee, and one such institution for every 9.8 neighborhood committees.

In recent years, the state has increased its investment in the building of social welfare institutions, targeting elderly people who have lost the ability to work, who have no source of income, and who have no legal guardians whatsoever to support them, or their guardians do not have the ability to support them. The government actively promotes the construction of senior citizens?lodging houses, elderly people's homes and nursing homes for the aged, to provide institutional services for seniors with different financial and physical conditions, especially those over 80, sick and disabled. The building of elderly people's homes is also promoted in rural areas for people in the "five guarantees?category. The government has issued policy documents including Opinions on Accelerating Socialized Welfare Services and Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Social Services for the Aged to speed up the development of institutional social services for the aged. Various modes are encouraged to mobilize social resources for this purpose: state built and privately run, privately operated with government support, government subsidy, and services purchased by government. By the end of 2005, there were 39,546 institutions providing services for seniors, such as social welfare institutions for the aged, elderly people's homes, senior citizens?lodging houses, and nursing homes for the aged, with a total of 1,497 million beds, including 29,681 rural elderly people's homes with 895,000 beds. The state has intensified its administration of standardized social institutional services for the aged by issuing the Assessment Standard for State-Level Social Welfare Institutions for the Aged and the Basic Norms for Social Welfare Institutions for the Aged, to improve the quality and level of such services.

The Chinese Government is endeavoring to train management and service personnel to provide services for the aged through educational course in school, work-and-learning programs and on-the-job training. The Provisional Regulations on the System of Assessing the Professional Level of Social Workers and the Methods for Implementing Professional Proficiency Tests for Social Workers, both promulgated by the state, encourage professional social workers and college graduates majoring in social work to work in social welfare institutions. The government has also laid down the standards and qualifications for the occupation of professional nurses for the aged, in order to strengthen the building of professionalism and standardization of this contingent. By the end of 2005, nearly 20,000 people had obtained such qualifications. The government encourages establishment of volunteer organizations to carry out the program known as Golden Sunshine Action throughout the country, and has mobilized many teenagers and people from all walks of life to join volunteers to take care of the aged. Their services cover many areas including taking care of seniors?everyday lives and providing medical and health care as well as legal aid by serving in social service institutions for the aged and forming one-on-one relationships with the aged at home. So far, more than 630 million hours of volunteer services have been provided in 13 million cases for over 2.8 million elderly people, and volunteers have set up over 60,000 service centers for the aged.

V. Cultural Education for the Aged

The promotion of cultural education for elderly people is a requirement for enhancing the level of their spiritual and cultural life. China pays much attention to the development of cultural education for the aged in order to enrich their cultural life and satisfy their needs in this regard.

The Chinese Government has set up comprehensive activity centers with adequate multi-functional facilities for seniors in large- and medium-sized cities; cultural activity centers for seniors in counties (cities, districts and banners); activity stations (sites) for seniors in townships, towns and communities; and activity rooms for seniors in grassroots villages and neighborhoods. By the end of 2005, there were over 670,000 amenities for seniors?recreational activities in Chinese urban and rural areas. Governments at all levels have designated special activity venues for seniors in both old and new public-welfare cultural establishments, and cultural activity venues under the administration of government institutions have also been opened to the elderly. Public cultural service establishments such as libraries, cultural centers, art galleries, museums, and science and technology centers supported by state funds, as well as public recreation places, including parks, gardens and tourist sites, are open to seniors free or at a discount. As a result, the social and cultural life of the elderly is continuously improving.

The state has made positive efforts to provide spiritual and cultural products suitable for senior citizens. Central and provincial radio and TV stations broadcast programs and special features for elderly people. By the end of 2005, China had published 24 newspapers for seniors, with a total circulation of 2.8 million copies, and 23 magazines and periodicals, selling some 3.058 million copies. Large quantities of literary and artistic works popular among elderly people have been created in literary, movie and television, theatrical and publication circles. Cultural departments and institutions at various levels organize art troupes to create and give performances warmly welcomed by elderly people at grassroots units. The Chinese Government positively promotes and supports all kinds of cultural and recreational activities beneficial to the mental and physical health of seniors, and allocates special funds every year for such large-scale activities as national performances by elderly people and the Chinese Elderly People's Chorus Festival, and for international cultural and artistic exchanges for the elderly. Diversified and healthy cultural activities for the elderly are frequently organized in communities throughout the country. Public cultural institutions such as art centers, cultural centers and cultural stations make it a point to give guidance to elderly people's cultural activities, and meanwhile, have cultivated a contingent of amateur art and literary activists among seniors, who play an important role in enlivening and enriching the spiritual and cultural life of the elderly. Mass recreational organizations of elderly people in both urban and rural areas are growing rapidly, forming the backbone of elderly people's cultural activities.