As the population of senior citizens in China's Inner Mongolia continues to rise, reaching 3.82 million, and the aging population situation gets grimmer, the region has been setting up convenient service centers for the elderly since 2013 for first-aid and daily care.

It now has 51 service centers set up with 18.7 million yuan ($2.88 million) in public funds. And, to respond to the government's move last year to promoting the "Internet Plus", the region has extend it to an intelligent home care service site for the elderly, with a hotline -- 12349 -- to break what it calls a "bottleneck" in traditional home care.

The region now has almost 80,000 people in the intelligent home care system, and more than 200 people providing policy consultation, medical care, and housekeeping service to meet the needs of the elderly. And, to standardize management, the center has a 12349-community service management center that is responsible for hiring, managing, evaluating and dealing with disputes.

The vice-director of the regional civic affairs dept's charity and welfare office, Xing Gang, explains further, "Introducing a market mechanism to intelligent home care for capital and operations is a new mode of developing the 'Internet Plus' intelligent home care. Our goal is to develop a 15-minute elderly care system, then we will gradually improve services and expand their scope, and expect it to be applied in all counties and banners in 2018, to give more old people enjoyable services."