In an aging China, daycare centers transformed into senior centers

Elderly people sway to old-time tunes in a former kindergarten in northern China, converted into a leisure center for retirees to cope with the rapid aging of population and the birth crisis.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese will enter old age over the coming decades, in a country where the birth rate is chronically low, according to official statistics.

Thousands of preschools are closing across the country due to lack of enrollment.

Others are adapting, like this establishment in Shanxi province, which has traded the giggling of children for the wisdom of a more mature clientele.

“The problem has become particularly evident with the continued decline in the number of children,” director Li Xiuling, 56, told AFP.

“When my daycare center emptied, I thought about how to make the best use of it,” she said.

Director Li Xiuling shows the toilets once used by children at a daycare center turned leisure center for retirees, July 1, 2024 in Taiyuan, north China © AFP – Adek BERRY

Founded in 2005, its daycare welcomed up to 280 children before closing its doors last year.

The place reopened in December under another name, “Impressions de jeunesse”, transforming into a leisure center for retirees.

Located in the provincial capital Taiyuan, the center welcomes around a hundred adults wishing to learn music, dance and other disciplines.

“The idea is very progressive,” judges Ms. Li. “They come to fulfill some of their youthful dreams.”

– “Become young again” – < /p>

A modeling professor, for example, directs a parade of women with impeccable hairstyles, wearing traditional dresses and pink oiled paper parasols.

Participants in a dance class at a former children's daycare center transformed into a leisure center for retirees on July 2, 2024 in Taiyuan, northern China. © AFP – Adek BERRY

In another classroom, students sit in a semi-circle and beat African drums to accompany socialist songs.

He Ying , 63, says coming to the center helped her overcome her lack of self-confidence after retirement and make new friends.

“I had the impression that my cultural life was very impoverished, that there was not much meaning in continuing to live”, he said. -she confided to AFP. “(People here) don't just wait until old age.”

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Children's beds of the former daycare center now a leisure center for retirees, July 2, 2024 in Taiyuan, northern China © AFP – Adek BERRY

Nearly 15,000 kindergartens closed in China last year, with enrollment falling by 5.3 million students compared to 2022, according to government data.

In industrial Shanxi, where the population is declining, there were 78,000 more deaths than births last year.

The center cultural still bears witness to its past, with its bunk beds and tiny desks lined up along brightly colored walls.

For Yan Xi, ex-teacher of the garden children who now run classes for retirees, we had to get used to the change.

“Little children believe everything we tell them, but the “old people… know what they want”, she summarizes.

Yan Xi (c) leads a dance class for retirees at a former childcare center turned senior leisure center, July 2, 2024 in Taiyuan, north China © AFP – Adek BERRY

“I need to think more about how to communicate with them,” the teacher told AFP.

According to local media, several other institutions across China have successfully transitioned from preschool to senior education.

Sun Linzhi, a 56-year-old student, notes that there was “a need for universities for older people.”

“I feel like “to be young again”, when coming to the center of Taiyuan, she told AFP.

– An economy of seniors –

Last year, China saw a significant increase in its senior population, with nearly 17 million additional people aged 60 and over, according to official statistics.

An African drumming class in a former daycare transformed into a leisure center for retirees, July 2, 2024 in Taiyuan, northern China © AFP – Adek BERRY

This age group already represents more than 20% of the population, a proportion which is expected to reach almost a third by 2035, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit research group.

Beijing plans to establish a national elderly care system by 2025, but the country lacks retirement homes and suffers from large regional disparities.

An important economic meeting will be devoted next week to the future of the senior economy.

The government estimates that products and services for seniors – from senior-friendly tourism to advanced medical care – could be worth 30 trillion yuan ($4.13 trillion) by 2035.

But he is struggling to revive the plummeting birth rate, one of the main factors in China's unbalanced demographics.

Li Xiuling, the school principal, still says she is nostalgic for the time when her school was teeming with unruly children.

“I was very emotionally invested in this school”, she confides, showing disused bunks and desks, kept as souvenirs.

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