Concern for the elderly has been awakened in Nanjing, Capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, after a recent survey found a quarter of old people in the city are lonely.

The survey, conducted by a team of students from both Nanjing University and Nanjing Normal University, was based on face-to-face interviews with 300 elderly people. It found that 10 percent of the elderly people said they were frequently tormented by their solitude, with another 15 percent feeling lonely at times.

The lonely seniors said their younger relatives had little time for them, for various reasons, including bad relationships or living far away.

When asked whether they were able to call on other relatives, besides descendents, 33 percent said they had contact with relatives once or twice a month, while 25.5 percent said they almost never took the initiative to contact relatives.

Others said they exchanged visits with relatives living nearby at least once a week. When it came to killing time, 80 percent watched TV or listened to the radio, while 57.5 percent were fond of reading several newspapers every day.

Only 30 per cent actually went on short or long trips to the outside world.

Fewer still, only 5.5 percent, participated in educational activities, such as lectures for elderly people held in local communities.

As many as 30 percent said they didn't feel happy.

The reasons for unhappiness were mainly focused on worries about the career development or life experiences of their children,or anger generated by bad relationships with their descendents.

The reported solitude of the elderly raised concern among the public in Nanjing.

"Facing huge life pressure ourselves, we have little time to care for our parents. Other than giving them money or visiting them on traditional festivals, we really don't have time and energy to take them out for trips or to have frequent reunions. We know this isn't fair to our parents, but we have no choice," said Du Ting, a middle-aged woman in Nanjing.

According to Wang Guoying, an experienced worker in a community commission in the Xuanwu District of Nanjing, with the nuclear family taking the place of the extended family, elderly people have difficulties getting used to living alone.

"Accustomed to work and taking care of a big family, elderly people tend to fall into idleness once they retire and live separately from their children. They have no interest in participating in public activities," said Wang.

Wang advised elderly people to broaden their interests in order to enrich their leisure time. Otherwise, they could easily linger too much on trivialities and neglect the bright side of life, Wang warned.

Wang also mentioned that, as a traditional virtue of the country, the whole of society should work together to make a happy living environment for elderly people and ensure them a happy late life.

(Shanghai Daily July 19, 2006)