As unlikely as it may be, the phrase "penthouse suite" may soon become common in Beijing neighborhoods.
A personal elevator recently unveiled in Beijing may be the first of many as the city's skyrocketing elderly population demands accessibility to their low-rise walkup apartments.
Located in the Quyi neighborhood in the city's Dongcheng District, the private elevator is an independent structure built on the outside of a five-story apartment unit
Moving at a leisurely speed of 0.5 meters per second with a maximum capacity of six passengers, the 1-by-1.2-meter elevator only serves the eight residents that live at that apartment unit, with an median age of 70.
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The elevator is designed to be unobtrusive: the shaft is lined with glass in order not to obstruct sunlight, and the machine operation is said to be noiseless.
Built in 1962, the Quyi apartment complex was part of a housing boom in which residential units were built following the same utilitarian pattern. Designed with two residences per floor, the apartments were built without elevators and have since become a problem for China's rapidly aging population.
To cater to its senior residents, Beijing's municipal government passed an ordinance last year to subsidize these types of private elevators. According to the law, the Beijing municipal finance department agreed to pay up to 40 percent of the cost of each elevator for each resident.
As CCTV reports, the Quyi elevator has attracted admirers from as far away as Hebei. Needless to say, as a result many elderly residents from other neighborhoods are eyeing private elevators of their very own.
Eighty year-old Bai Zhouhou is a fourth floor tenant who is ecstatic about the improvement made outside his door. "Before it would take me 10 minutes to climb the stairs, but now with the new elevator, it just takes three to four minutes," said Bai.
And yet, having your own personal elevator isn't as uplifting as it first appears.
The Yuqi elevator does not actually stop at a resident's own floor. Due to the design of the Soviet-inspired complexes, the outside elevator can only make stops at the landings in-between floors, which in this case are 2.5 and 4.5. This means that anyone using a wheelchair will still be forced to walk up or down a half-flight of stairs.
On top of that, personal elevators are very expensive, with the government subsidy only going so far as to cover "no more than 240,000 RMB per floor." Chinese news reports do not specify a cost, but tantalize readers by saying subsidized costs are based upon a resident's proximity to the ground. One analogy compares each resident's share to riding on a bus: "The closer you are (to the ground), the cheaper the price."
As appealing that may sound, some residents maybe be left feeling shafted.
The subsidy program is only valid when all residents of a unit unanimously agree to contribute towards the cost of the private elevator, no matter what floor he or she lives on. Another complication is that only 150,000 out of 250,000 Beijing apartment complexes have conditions suitable for building an independently-standing private elevator.
Considering the time and money involved, one would think that a simpler solution exists. But instead of trying to relocate Beijing seniors (which has not gone well), one man named Li who built a one-stop private elevator for his fifth-story apartment-dwelling elderly parents explained it like this:
My mother is turning 90 soon, and she just had surgery performed on her leg. As she’s used to living here, she’s not willing to move.
Something else to consider if this trend takes off is that China doesn't have a good track record when it comes to elevator safety. A municipal watchdog found last year that 94 percent of a group of tested high-risk elevators failed a safety test.
China is rapidly aging in overwhelming numbers, putting a strain on society's ability to care for its seniors. Currently at 23 percent, Beijing residents aged over 60 will comprise 30 percent of the population by 2030, a ratio that will reach 1 out of every 3 people by 2050 as life expectancy continues to rise. And thanks to the decades-long one-child policy, China's younger generation are burdened with the responsibility of caring for their aging parents by themselves.
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The Quyi elevator is the first for Beijing, but is not new to other Chinese cities like Zhuji (shown above), Changsha and Nanjing (shown below).
With the Beijing pilot program considered a success, a second elevator is already planned for a Chaoyang neighborhood, and will be completed by October.
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Twitter: @Sinopath