EMERGING INDUSTRY

Governments at all levels in China are taking pains to guide the development of virtual homes for the elderly.

In 2012, the municipality government of the northern city of Tianjin blazed the trail by teaming up with a domestic service provider called Emotte, extending the company's broad range of services to local communities, including house cleaning and meal deliveries.

In the past two years, a total of 14 traditional nursing homes in Tianjin have jumped on the bandwagon of offering door-to-door services to local seniors, a move which has proved economical while serving more customers.

The fledgling industry has won much praise from the aged, who tend to be more comfortable in the familiar environment of their own homes than in crowded nursing facilities.

Yin Yanbang, an 86-year-old Tianjin resident, said that he prefers the new model because he can stay at home and enjoy domestic services by simply making a phone call to the service provider.

Lin Shoujie, another Tianjin resident, shares the same view. Meal deliveries have saved him the trouble of cooking and contributed to his recovering health thanks to the nutritious food.

Li Ling, a carer who works for Emotte, attributed the company's popularity to its system of performance-related pay.

"I never shirk my responsibilities because my salary is directly linked with my performance," Li said, explaining that she gets her monthly income only after her client has given positive feedback to her employer.

Home-based nursing can also comfort old people's children working far away because they know that their parents are safe and sound at home and carefully looked after, according to Chen Li, an official with the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.