The growing silver economy in China has developed various niche markets providing low-cost and one-stop services to the senior.
In east China's Jiangsu Province and nearby Shanghai, a novel type of restaurants emerge for elderly diners with lunch and diner combined to cost no more than 100 yuan (around 14 U.S. dollars) on average per person, accompanied by a wide variety of entertainments.
The Yitian Club, or One Day Club in English, in Suzhou, a major city in Jiangsu, is packed with senior customers at 10:00 every day.
The restaurant offers group meal packages priced at approximately 100 yuan per person, covering both lunch and dinner, each serving 18 dishes.
"Vegetarian dishes are what we need in summer, as they are light and go well with our tastes," said a customer.
The club also has a KTV where the senior customers enjoy themselves singing, dancing and chatting over tea throughout the afternoon after lunch. "We can sing and dine in the club. It offers all the services for us," said another customer.
Qian Ziqing, manager of the club, said he opened the restaurant for senior folks because he was confident in the potential of China's silver economy.
After finding that seniors love to go to nearby rural farm houses to enjoy themselves, where they have meals at low cost plus recreations, Qian decided to introduce the business model to urban areas.
"We mean to provide delicious dishes and high-quality entertainments at urban centers where transportation is convenient, but at prices close to those at the rural farm houses, so folks could happily spend all day together in the place. Now, we can say it's hard to book a table in our club," said Qian.
The innovative 100-year-a-day model of the club enables the senior folks to re-gain the pleasure of social life, and fills in a gap in the traditional elderly care services.
Currently, the scale of China's silver economy reached about seven trillion yuan (about 960 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for about six percent of the country's GDP, and that number is expected to grow to 30 trillion yuan by 2035.
Silver economy develops niche markets for seniors
Officials and scholars from the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region have welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping's keynote address at the opening ceremony of the fourth ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum in Beijing on Tuesday.
They said that the speech laid out the practical achievements and broad prospects of the China-LAC community with a shared future, put forward new initiatives and actions for the development of China-LAC relations, and signaled the direction for both sides to achieve common development and revitalization and write a new chapter in China-LAC relations.
"The projects designed by China for this region meet the needs of Latin American countries. In terms of development and investment projects, such as infrastructure, clean energy and digitalization, they are very important for Cuba. And projects such as the planned Brazil-Peru bi-oceanic railway and the expansion of the port of La Guaira in Venezuela directly and indirectly create jobs and benefit Latin American people," said Eduardo Regalado, a researcher at the International Policy Research Center of Cuba.
Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi said that his country is committed to carrying forward the positive momentum of the China-CELAC Forum when it assumes the rotating presidency of CELAC from Colombia in 2026.
"Uruguay is looking forward to taking over next year and continuing the tradition of the past decade. To this end, we must strengthen the development of these platforms for promoting multilateralism, and carefully protect the achievements made by both sides at this year's meetings. We should not only achieve development in the field of economy and trade, but also contribute to promoting world peace," he said.
Other politicians from Latin America pointed out that China and LAC countries are all important members of the Global South, and are comprehensive cooperative partners featuring equality, mutual benefit and shared development. In a profoundly changing world, the strengthening of China-LAC solidarity and collaboration is an example of true multilateralism and sets a model for South-South cooperation, some said.
"President Xi Jinping has a broad vision for global development. China has made amazing development achievements, which have become a part of modern society, including technology, artificial intelligence and clean energy. The inflow of Chinese investment, such as for the construction of Chancay Port, has activated development in a variety of sectors [in Peru]," said Edgar Tello, a Peruvian congressman.
"President Xi Jinping announced the strengthening of South-South cooperation and the launch five programs. It will give more Latin American people the opportunity to study in China. China will provide a 66-billion-yuan (about 9.16 billion U.S. dollars) credit line to provide financial support for the development of LAC countries. And China will promote the civilization program to carry out cooperation in archaeology and civilization research. Such mutual cooperation and win-win initiatives between China and LAC countries are inspiring. We in Honduras are sincerely delighted with the series of cooperation plans announced by President Xi," said Rasel Tome, vice president of the National Congress of Honduras.
Officials, scholars praise Xi's keynote speech at China-CELAC Forum
