liu xiuhua's health status today: pulse 84 a minute and normal.116 and normal. >> it also reads out her hours of sleep and the paces she's walked. >> status check over, all the best to you. >> up until recently it would have been normal for her to move in with her son. offspring were traditionally seen as an insurance for old age. but times are changing in china. a precarious situation for the elderly who need care. 1,500 kilometres west in the city of lanzhou one institution overseas 130,000 people. it's one of an increasing number of "virtual care homes." the elderly remain living at home but are monitored from this control room. >> this is our target group, older people without children, who can no longer work. during our house visits, we first take a photo for official recognition purposes. -- for facial-recognition purposes. thanks to the internet and modern technology, it has become a lot easier to supervise things. here we can check the length of a visit using the recording. each visit should take 15 minutes. you are quite welcome to listen