"We have to support ourselves," Wu's wife said with a grin. The reason she does not complain is that she lives among elderly people in a similar situation, who have to do backbreaking work to make a living.

Psychological pain accompanies the physical hardships. A survey by the China Research Center on Aging found that 10 percent of elderly rural residents feel unhappy and 35 percent feel lonely.

When the disease first struck, Wu instantly felt the crisis. He summoned his four sons to his bedside and for the first time raised the issue of subsistence allowances. After discussion, Wu's four sons agreed to each give their parents 200 yuan a year. Although the total amount of 800 yuan hardly covers the cost of one hospital visit, Wu did not challenge the decision.

"This money is very little, but life is not easy for my sons either," he sighed.

Wu and his wife dare not think about how long they can struggle. "I can only wait and see. Since my health is poor, I am worried about what I will do when I cannot move around," said Wu.

More work for the government

Against the reality that most of China's countryside has an aging population, about 94 percent of elderly rural residents rely on their children or other family members for their livelihood. However, this traditional model is facing serious challenges with the country's social and economic development.

First of all, due to the implementation of family planning policies in the last three decades, the size of rural families has been shrinking. The majority of rural families have only one or two children, who have to shoulder the burden of supporting the elderly more heavily than ever.

Second, recent years have seen surplus rural laborers flock to the cities for employment, which has created elderly rural "empty nesters," a phenomenon previously confined to the urban population. Since young members of a family stay in the cities throughout the year, relying on the care of their children is only a dream for the majority of rural seniors.

Third, it is often impossible for farmers to prepare for their old age when they are young. Given the low market prices for grain, the cultivation of grain--a major source of income for farmers--can yield very low profits, only enough for farmers to meet their food and clothing expenses. Since the costs of medical care and education have been rising rapidly in China, most farmers cannot spare money to buy insurance.

According to statistics publicized by the China National Committee on Aging at the beginning of 2006, only 55 million farmers had pension insurance, less than 10 percent of the relevant population. Lu Xuejing, a professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business, disclosed to Beijing Review alarming figures for Beijing. Of the 600,000 farmers above 60 years of age in Beijing's 14 suburban counties, only 23,000, or less than 4 percent, have a pension.

China's social pension insurance system, which was created in the early 1990s, mostly covers the urban population. Many experts attribute the lack of a social security network for farmers to the government's shortage of money for investment. They say that the government, while having its hands full with problems in the urban pension insurance schemes, has no extra energy to deal with pension insurance for the rural population.