North China's Tianjin Municipality recently opened a home for elderly overseas Chinese.

The home in downtown Tianjin occupies 3,000 sq.m. and is expected to accommodate about two hundred seniors. Along with facilities including a reading room, a Karaoke hall, canteens and

health centers, there are also professional nurses to take care of the residents, according to the home's director.

Tianjin now has about 10,000 overseas Chinese, and the return of Macao may add more to this number. Also, statistics last year show that citizens atr and above the age of 60 number around 1.19 million, 13.1 percent of the city's total population, and this figure is expected to reach 1.52 million, or 16 percent of the total.

To satisfy the needs of an aging society, local officials plan to build homes for the elderly with about 100 beds each in all the 18 counties and districts. Two homes in the city's suburbs with

more than 400 beds are currently under construction.