The alternatives to public nursing homes are expensive private facilities in the city. For one, called Golden Heights, the cost of single rooms, double rooms and suites range from 8,800 yuan to 30,000 yuan per month.

"We haven't formally accepted elderly people," the receptionist told Beijing News. "They could come to live in the model room on a trial basis but have to pay 1500 yuan a week." The 8,800 yuan room offers flat panel TVs and fine cooking apparatus. "[The fee of] 8,800 yuan includes three meals every day," the receptionist said, adding that 200 elderly people have lived here on a trial basis since last year, with more than 10 deciding to move in. When the nursing home is formally completed, the facility will include a clinic. It will have cooperation with major hospitals, eliminating hospital registration in emergencies, the receptionist said.

Unable to bear the high cost, Zhang and Li were forced to look for other options outside the city. The couple finally settled for a private nursing home in suburban Daxing District, south of Beijing. They live in a room of less than 20 square meters and pay 4600 yuan per month. The clinic there is equipped to treat minor diseases. "The conditions are quite well at such price," Zhang said.

In this nursing home, elderly people who can take care of themselves live in the same building with those who cannot. The corridor always permeates an awful smell, the couple complained, and a man with Alzheimer's lives across from their room, who continues to yell day and night.

Recently, the old couple began to worry again because they heard that the nursing home will be demolished to build commercial residential buildings. "We have been driven to the suburb. Still we couldn't live a peaceful life," Zhang complained. They are worried what they could do if the nursing home they have just gotten used to is demolished.