As a gift for the Double Ninth Festival, one of the China's traditional festivals set on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month each year for elderly people, about 100,000 Beijing elderly residents are getting a special aiding card to help them should they get lost on their way home.
Beijing has followed Shanghai in becoming an "ageing city". According to the fifth national census, at present, Beijing has 1.16 million elderly people aged 65 or older, 8.4 percent of the whole population. Compared with last year, this number has increased by 2.1 percentage points. Up to now, of the nearly 2 million elderly people aged over 60 in Beijing, about 100,000 are suffering from senile dementia, and about 3,000 get lost every year.
Issued especially for the elderly people, this aiding card has the records of every aged person's registration number and assisting telephone number. Once the elderly get lost, other people can directly dial "999", and the Beijing Red Cross Association will ensure they are safely delivered to their home.
Now, these special cards are being distributed within Beijing's eight districts, and any senior citizen can get them for free.
The photo shows that a staff member from one of the Beijing local service centers sends gifts to 101-year-old Wang Wenyi.
(china.org.cn translated by Feng Shu, October 25, 2001)
