BEIJING, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Longkou, a county-level city in east China, has recently been included into China's top 100 counties by sustainable development capacity of health and wellness industry, according to the annual report on health and wellness industry of China (2024-2025).
Longkou is an early starter in bolstering health and wellness industry. It is a demonstrative city for county-wide elderly care service system innovation and health and wellness-based tourism in Shandong Province.
In a local elderly care center, 99-year-old Chen Fenglin, who has lived there for five years, always feels relaxed given the center's tasty meals, attentive and considerate healthcare staff and quality services.
Han Yu who takes charge of the center said that under the principle of happy elderly life, the center is dedicated to establishing an emotional bond between the aged and its staff to help the former feel at home despite living in a nursing home.
This is a miniature of how Longkou combined healthcare, elderly care and other sectors to foster integrated development.
Recent years, a full-chain health and wellness system which incorporates ecology, culture, tourism and medicare has been in steady progress there and a service regime consisting of home care and services from communities and institutions has been further enriched.
Since 2018, Longkou has revved up health and wellness institutions construction by private investors and a batch of high quality projects such as related service centers and apartments have been put into operation.
Thanks to efforts into service team construction including establishing a major in elderly care and management at Yantai Nanshan University, "post-80s" heads of nursing homes and related administrative staff account currently for 40-plus percent of all the participants in local health and wellness sector.
In Longkou Elderly University, calligraphy, dancing and photography lessons often bring the aged people moments of happiness, spearheading its "happy elderly care for good fortune and longevity in Longkou"-centered health and wellness industry development.
Under its industry-boosting guidance, "kindness, patience and sense of responsibility"-based service concept, an elderly care service circle that brings at-the-doorstep elderly care services, and elderly canteens with fiscal subsidies are all presenting Longkou's heart-warming attention for the aged.
(Edited by Duan Jing with Xinhua Silk Road, duanjing@xinhua.org)