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Four years ago when his wife died, Wang Zhende, 88, decided to rent out his apartment and moved into the Quyang Neighborhood Retirement Home in the north of Shanghai. Wang has been living with his 77-year-old roommate, Ren Zeru, in a 15-sq-m room on the third floor of the home. The monthly rent rose from 800 yuan ($117) to 950 yuan this year.

 

 Old couple attend a celebration of their "gold marriage" in a park in Changning district, Shanghai on October 6, 2008. [CFP] Every day, Wang gets up at about 5 am and practices tai chi. "Daytime passes quickly and I go to bed at about 6 pm," Wang said. With an aging population and rising demand for retirement homes in the city, many will consider Wang lucky. Shanghai, one of the first places in the country that is seeing negative population growth, is aging fast and trying to address the problems that go with the worrying trend. By the end of last year, there were about 70,000 beds at Shanghai's 5...

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