About 20 percent of Beijing residents will be elderly by 2020, the Beijing Morning Post reports Monday.

The number of elderly people in Beijing is expected to reach 3.5 million in 2020, placing a heavy burden on families and society as a whole.

Responding to these changes, the government should pay close attention to the needs of the elderly and provide such services as organizing various interest groups in the communities, said Li Hongbing, an officer of Beijing's Xicheng District.

He also pointed out that Beijing's shortage of service providers and facilities for the elderly has caused many inconveniences.

Beijing reached the status of an ageing society in 1990, ten years earlier than most other cities in China.

(CRIENGLISH.com October 18, 2010)