Theirs is one of the most immediate problems to arise from China's aging population. As bureaucrats in Beijing fret about curbing the country's falling birth rate -- recently allowing up to three children per married couple -- and funding ever more pensions, seniors like Wang worry about simply getting up and down the stairs.
The couple's neighborhood, Bigui Garden, in a suburb of the eastern Chinese city Hangzhou, is made up of rows of blocks, each fitted with an internal staircase and 12 apartments on the second to seventh floors.
China has an enormous stock of stairs-only neighborhoods. Most were built before the turn of the millennium by the government, which preferred to construct towers not above six stories -- anything taller legally needs a lift. In 2019, the vice minister of China's housing ministry said more than 100 million people lived in residential compounds with buildings older than about 20 years that were found lacking necessary facilities, such as elevators.
