To better care for more elderly people, Beijing authorities aim to provide more than 120,000 nursing beds by 2015 and 160,000 by the end of 2020. Many facilities would be built by the government but run by the private sector.

Li said the attempt is to make sure operators do not have to worry about the cost and can focus on management and service.

"With lower costs, it is believed the private nursing homes will focus more on the service quality while lowering charges to the seniors," Li said.

House calls

To take full advantage of the nursing homes and cope with the explosive increase of senior citizens, Beijing must rely on community-based care, where elderly residents live in their own homes and enjoy house calls from staff at nearby centers, Li said.

"No matter how advanced the services are, the elderly still prefer living in their own apartments," he said. "Community nursing homes will not only benefit the relatively few residents living in a center, but also the hundreds of seniors around the community."

Beijing has several pilot projects testing community-based nursing institutions and most have received positive feedback, he said.

Some of those have modeled the door-to-door approach, providing such things as physical examinations, cooking of meals, helping with showers, housekeeping and sociable chatting.