Sunset years, fading sunset

The world is closing in on Hong Kong retirees who chose to stretch their meager savings by moving across the border to where the cost of living was lower.mini storage But that is changing with many retirees forced to move farther and farther north. SL Luo reports. It was a poignant sight. There was Wu Ming-tat, looking frail; grey haired; a urinary bag strapped to his waist. His eyes looked sunken as he trudged into a common-folk coffee shop in the bustling township of Buji, northeast of Shenzhen. Wu had enjoyed some prosperity during his working years. He had been a Hong Kong civil servant. Now, at 65, he has been living in Buji for five years – the place he chose to live out his sunset years as comfortably as his life's savings would permit. His dream came crashing down on him not long ago. He was diagnosed with a serious problem in his urinary tract. The medical expenses on the mainland were far beyond his means. His family having deserted him, Wu is desperate, lost and helpless. "When I first discovered blood in my urine one night, I went to a local hospital in Buji. The scan alone cost me 300 yuan, and the equipment another 250 yuan. After an examination, the doctor suggested that I be admitted for one night — at a cost of 3,000 yuan. "I immediately bolted for the door, hailed a cab, and went straight across the border to Sheung Shui to be treated at North District Hospital. I would have been dead for sure, otherwise" he told China Daily. Wu's is a common tale among an estimated 150,000 Hong Kong elderly residents scattered across Guangdong Province. They are people who opted to quit Hong Kong when they retired. They settled in Guangdong hoping for a decent living standard with pensions that were very small in most cases. Many found themselves embarked on a river of no return. Housing costs have risen beyond their means, whether they stay in Guangdong or move back to Hong Kong. Shenzhen and Guangzhou have been home to about two-thirds of the 150,000 Hong Kong retirees in the province. There are about 60,000 in Shenzhen alone. Buji is a thriving commercial and residential sub-district readily accessible via the Shenzhen Metro. During its heyday, about 6,000 Hongkongers lived there. Buji however, has lost much of its allure and the number of Hong Kong retirees has dwindled to about 2,000. Some of the original 6,000 retirees have died, of course, some came back to Hong Kong, others disappeared to smaller cities and towns all over the landscape. Medical costs across the border are out of reach for most Hong Kong pensioners living on the mainland. Scholars and social workers in the field have advocated for years that elderly Hong Kong people living across the border should enjoy the same medical benefits as Hong Kong residents. They've been calling for government subsidies at least, to those needing treatment at mainland hospitals. No one is listening. Out of control inflation on the mainland is one of the factors that has destroyed the hopes of Hong Kong pensioners in Shenzhen and it impedes those pensioners from moving to places where the cost of living is lower. Home rents have gone through the roof in some places. On average, rents are up about 40 percent from five years ago; food prices have nearly doubled; while prices at upscale restaurants are racing upwards — so that the cost of a restaurant meal over there, can be just as much as it would cost in Hong Kong. It's small consolation that those over 65, including foreigners, can ride Shenzhen's subway without charge. Still, they have to carry documentary proof. "I used to pay 800 yuan monthly for my 80-square-meter, one-room flat in Buji three years ago, but I've been forced to move six floors down in the same building for just a room about one-third the size, but paying the same rent," laments Wu. "I can no longer afford to go for afternoon tea. It's out of the question now," says Wu, who relies solely on his monthly HK$6,000 pension to keep going. Now medical bills are eating up his scant resources and his savings. They're long gone. He's had to resort to regular refinancing a longstanding personal bank overdraft in Hong Kong, granted solely on the strength of his only income — his pension. Wu says he would have opted "for the end of the road" if he had been diagnosed with cancer. Fortunately, it wasn't. Classic story Wu's story is a classic case of what has happened to the age-old tradition of filial piety in these modern times. "Right after I was admitted to North District儲存Hospital in Sheung Shui, the doctor called my family and told them about my condition. What my daughter told the doctor was a shock: 'I don't believe he's sick and we're not concerned," she said," Wu related, his eyes welling with tears. The Hong Kong hospital has arranged for Wu to undergo an operation later this month. As a former civil servant in Hong Kong, it will cost him only HK$50 for daily medical expenses plus the equipment required. The medications will be given free of charge. Wu is banking on the complete success of the operation. After that, he hopes to leave Shenzhen and join fellow Hongkongers who have moved farther north, to cities like Shaoguan on the border of Hunan Province, or perhaps to Zhongshan, Jiangmen or even Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region. It's not that important where. What matters is that living costs are lower and he can afford to live there. Options for Hong Kong pensioners in Guangdong are few these days. Certainly there's not much hope there for those seeking a higher standard of living on their poor incomes. They can return to the HKSAR to fight for public housing; stay put on the mainland; or move to greener pastures looking for a lower cost of living. Wu, who turned 65 last year, however, has found one comfort – the Hong Kong government's Guangdong Scheme for the elderly, rolled out in October last year after. It took years of wrangling and lobbying by lawmakers on behalf of elderly people living on the mainland to get the law passed. The scheme lifts the previous stringent requirement that recipients of the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) or "fruit money," must not be absent from Hong Kong for any continuous period of more than 60 days over the course of a year. They must also not be recipients under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme. There's still an income cap of HK$6,880 monthly for single "fruit money" recipients, aged 65 to 69 living in Guangdong. Total assets, including bank savings and investments in stocks and trust funds, must not exceed HK$193,000. For married couples, the cap is HK$10,940 with a cap on total assets of HK$292,000. The current OALA paid out monthly to eligible persons is HK$1,135, and will be raised to HK$1,180 from February 1, 2014. The Social Welfare Department's office in Sheung Shui confirmed that more than 100,000 OALA applications have been received since the Guangdong scheme got off the ground. The queue is long. Wu says he's still waiting for an interview since he put in his application three months ago. "Once I've got the green light, I plan to head straight to Shaoguan, where I can live more comfortably, having to pay only about 500 yuan to rent a flat to live out my days there," he says. Backflow eased Social welfare experts say the latest OALA incentive may have helped ease the backflow of elderly people from the mainland into Hong Kong. It has not stemmed the exodus of Hong Kong people living in major cities in Guangdong, to other places in the province where the cost of living is lower. A Hong Kong retirees group in Zhongshan claims to have played a key role in getting the Guangdong OALA scheme launched. "It's unfair that we, former Hong Kong workers who contributed so much to the SAR's economy, were ignored for so long. We're happy that our voices have finally been heard," a member of the group told China Daily. An estimated 2,000 Hong Kong people are said to have settled in Zhongshan – eponymously named after the nation's founder, Sun Yat Sen. The city has won renown for its "pollution-free" environment and its lush urban parks. It's a perfect setting for retirees. Yuen Chiu-kwan, a Hong Kong Chinese medical practitioner and long-time resident of Zhongshan, says the city, with a population of just 3 million, is a far cry from the overcrowding and congestion of Hong Kong and Shenzhen. It's become a magnet for Hong Kong people seeking refuge in their sunset years. Yuen, a renowned qi gong master (a branch of Chinese medicine involving the exercise of breath alignment, healing and meditation), is helping out with a multi-million-yuan investment in a special medical facility in Zhongshan. The facility would offer long-term treatment administering herbal drugs and offering convalescent services to elderly people with chronic illnesses. "We aim to revolutionize the traditional medical concept of treating the sick and make this project the country should be proud of," Yuen says. Contact the writer at theam@chinadailyhk.com迷你倉