"Bringing up sons to provide for one's old age" has long been a deep-rooted concept for the Chinese. Any challenge to the concept is regarded as impiety. But now the concept has to change.

China's swelling aged population, which now accounts for more than 12 percent of its 1.3 billion population, and demographic structure, which means a young couple have to support four aging parents and raise at least one child, have started to challenge the traditional practice of family nursing.

Financial burdens for the generation born after the implementation of China's "one-child" policy in late 1970s, different lifestyles and population migration as a result of quick urbanization, have prompted the aged to think the previously unthinkable: leaving their children and entering a nursing home.

A barber cuts the hair of an old women in the nursing home of Niujie. [File photo]

"A nursing home is the only place where I will be be taken good care of if my children and I have to live apart. Living in a different place from them will give them more space. There will fewer family quarrels and it will alleviate the financial burden on my child," said 58-year-old Hang Guisheng.

At the Beijing Niujie nursing home, which is about half an hour's walk from Beijing's prime shopping center, Xidan, its 210 beds are all taken.

When it started operations in March 2008, more than 100 senior citizens lived here but the number soared in 2009, according to a staff member.

The annual cost of living in a two-bedroom apartment stands at nearly 24,000 yuan (about 3,500 U.S. dollars) - or nearly 35 percent of Beijing's GDP per capita in 2009, twice the 2006 annual income of urban senior citizens and nine times that of rural senior citizens, which was 1,1963 yuan and 2,722 yuan, respectively.

However, more than 20 people are on the waiting-list to enter the home, a staff member from the publicity department of the nursing home said.

Among the aged who are under intensive care at the nursing home, some have children working outside Beijing. Others are loath to spend a lonely life at home while their children work and take care of their own children.

For Beijing natives in the center,their families can visit regularly. But for those separated from their children by long distances, they can only hope their children or grandchildren can sometimes make a visit.

However, to many, those living in such nursing homes are the "vanguard" and "open-minded," as the majority of the aged still prefer family nursing in a country where the aged are often viewed as the "treasures" of the household.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Harbin bureau of statistics, which polled 1,000 senior citizens, about 85 percent said they would choose to stay at home with families, while only 7 percent said they would go to a nursing homes where they could receive professional care.

Wang Guangzhou, a research fellow with the Institute of Population and Labor Economics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said family nursing will remain the most popular and practical form of caring for the aged in the coming few years.

"The Chinese still have the deep-rooted concept that being sent to a nursing home is disgraceful. Moreover, we still advocate family nursing, as the number of nursing homes and resources in the country is limited," he said.

Mu Ruifu, a 74-year-old retiree, said, "I will definitely cling to my children when I can no longer move. Besides, living in a nursing home is a luxury that I cannot afford".

Mu said his 2,000 yuan-plus pension could only enable him to share in a two-bedroom dorm in the Niujie Nursing Home.

"If I lived there, I am spared of all allowances," he said.

Most urban retirees in China generally live on a monthly pension ranging from few hundreds to about 2,000 yuan. In rural areas, more than 70 percent of farmers had no savings at all, Wang Guangzhou said, citing his academic research result.

China now has 167 million people aged above 60, and the country has only 2.5 million beds in nursing homes,far below the world average of one beds for every 20 persons, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

But the swelling aged population - which has increased at a speed of 8 to 9 million annually since 2009 - and the social changes brought about by quick economic development and urbanization has put the issue of aged nursing in the spotlight.

In an executive meeting of the State Council on April 14 chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, the State Council called for vigorous efforts to push forward the progress of issues related to people's livelihood, including caring for the aged.

In March, during the annual session of the National People's Congress(NPC), China's top legislature, several NPC deputies submitted motions concerning the improvement of senior citizens' welfare.

The country is also amending a law on the protection of senior citizens' rights to improvement senior citizens' welfare.

"Caring for the aged is such a complicated issue in China that it can't be solved in a day or a few months. Family care will definitely remain the mainstream practice in the coming years," said Wang Guangzhou.