The Office of the National Working Commission on Aging recently published an announcement on the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, stating that in accordance with the relevant requirements of the Notice on Carrying Out the Creation of National Demonstration Age-Friendly Communities for 2025-2026 (No. 3 Document of the National Working Commission on Aging, 2025), and after community application, tier-by-tier vetting, provincial recommendation, follow-up guidance, and evaluation and acceptance, 1,993 communities (villages) are proposed to be named National Demonstration Age-Friendly Communities. Among them, Sanmenyang Village in Fengyang Township, Taishun, was selected. This longevity village, located in central Taishun at an altitude of about 700 meters, has continuously deepened its culture of filial piety and respect for the elderly, painting a new picture of age-friendly common prosperity.
National Demonstration Age-Friendly Communities
National Demonstration Age-Friendly Communities are age-friendly communities named by the National Working Commission on Aging. They are a creation initiative launched in 2021 with approval, aimed at implementing the national strategy of actively responding to population aging and advancing the building of an age-friendly society. This creation initiative covers areas such as safe living environments, convenient community services, and innovative technology for assisting the elderly. It includes tasks such as improving living environments, facilitating daily travel, and fostering an atmosphere of filial piety and respect for the elderly. It seeks to enhance community service capacity and standards, better meet the needs of older adults in areas including living environment, daily travel, health services, elderly care services, social participation, and cultural and spiritual life, explore the establishment of a creation model and long-term mechanism for age-friendly communities, and effectively strengthen older adults' sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security.
Sanmenyang Village in Fengyang Township
Sanmenyang Village is the seat of the Fengyang Township government. It was formed by the merger of 3 natural villages, with 871 households and 2,447 people in the village. Among them, 543 are elderly people aged 60 and above, 104 are elderly people aged 80 and above, and there is 1 centenarian. In recent years, the village has closely followed the requirements for creating an age-friendly community, taking "Phoenix Perches on the Parasol Tree - Nurturing and Respecting" as the theme of creation, relying on local longevity culture and sea-of-clouds ecological resources, and solidly advancing age-friendly environment renovation, improvement of elderly care services, and cultivation of a culture of filial piety. The village has continuously improved age-friendly infrastructure, advanced anti-slip and lighting upgrades on village roads, barrier-free renovations, optimized bus stop signage, and renovated the home environments of elderly families. It has built elderly care service positions such as a home-based elderly care service center and an elderly canteen. Family doctor contracting has achieved full coverage, and regular health checkups, free clinics, and lectures are carried out. Relying on smart elderly care equipment, emergency call devices have been installed for especially vulnerable elderly people, strengthening the safety line for older adults.
While improving the quality and efficiency of elderly care services, Sanmenyang Village has actively expanded channels for older adults to participate. It has created many indoor and outdoor cultural venues, including a cultural hall, a longevity health care hall, a Chinese herbal medicine exhibition hall, a centenarian fragrance park, and a cherry blossom trail, enriching the spiritual and cultural life of older adults. Relying on common prosperity workshops, it has developed light-physical-labor positions and implemented flexible working hours, enabling younger and healthy older adults to find employment at their doorstep, driving 300 person-times of employment and increasing per capita income by more than 2,000 yuan. Elderly people do handmade work at the home-based elderly care service center in Sanmenyang Village, Fengyang Township. Photo by Liu Kun. The village has also formed the "Sea of Clouds Morning Light" volunteer service team to regularly carry out door-to-door assistance and policy outreach. Relying on the traditional Chongyang Festival, it holds a Longevity Culture Tourism Festival, attracting more than 30,000 participants from across the county, and has held more than 30 elderly cultural activities of various kinds, covering more than 3,000 people. At the same time, it regularly holds collective birthday banquets for older adults, bringing together the village's elderly elders to reunite and talk about life, and writes filial piety and love for relatives into the village rules and conventions, deeply cultivating a rural custom of filial piety and respect for the elderly.
From safe housing and travel to health protection, from spiritual and recreational activities to silver-haired common prosperity, Sanmenyang Village has continuously improved its rural elderly care service system, allowing older adults to enjoy warm and high-quality elderly care services at their doorstep and continuously enhancing older adults' sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. Next, Sanmenyang Village in Fengyang Township will continue to polish the golden signboard of National Demonstration Age-Friendly Community, continuously optimize the supply of elderly care services, and carefully protect "silver-haired happiness."