On April 8, the 2026 (8th) World Health Expo, themed &#34;Health Community, Technology Creates the Future,&#34; opened in Wuhan. On the same day, the 2026 Longevity Era Aging Industry High-Quality Development Seminar was successfully held, where people from various sectors engaged in in-depth discussions on core topics such as smart elderly care technology empowerment and new opportunities in the silver economy.
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As the &#34;14th Five-Year Plan&#34; places elderly care at a prominent position in national strategy, and with China's population aged 60 and above exceeding 320 million, the longevity era is no longer a distant proposition but a reality that everyone is experiencing. Against this backdrop, how to solve the problem of &#34;getting old before getting rich&#34; and how to help billions of elderly people transition from &#34;elderly care&#34; to &#34;enjoying old age&#34; has become the focus of societal attention.
The Rise of the Era: The Longevity Era and Silver Economy Reshape the New Landscape of Elderly Care
Currently, the aging process in China is accelerating. By the end of 2025, the elderly population aged 60 and above is expected to exceed 325 million. The continuous expansion of the elderly population, the diversified upgrading of health needs, and the continuous improvement of the payment system are driving historic changes in the elderly care industry.
On one hand, policy dividends are being released intensively, with the &#34;14th Five-Year Plan&#34; systematically deploying elderly care services, and long-term care insurance being fully rolled out, providing solid payment support for disabled care and guiding the industry towards standardization, inclusiveness, and high quality. On the other hand, the demand structure is undergoing profound changes; the new generation of elderly people is no longer satisfied with basic life care, and their needs for health management, cultural socialization, travel and health care, and spiritual belonging are increasingly strong, with the silver economy upgrading from a marginal track to a new growth pole of the national economy.
At the same time, industry pain points remain prominent, with issues such as poor integration of medical and elderly care, fragmented service supply, a shortage of professional talent, and insufficient intelligent applications constraining the improvement of elderly care service quality.
Faced with such a grand and complex elderly care proposition, Taikang, with its unique &#34;new life insurance&#34; model and nearly twenty years of practice, has provided its own answers.
Taikang's Response: Three Major Innovative Breakthroughs Reshape the Core Competitiveness of Enjoying Old Age in the Chinese Style
Having been deeply engaged in the elderly care field for nearly twenty years, Taikang's mission is to enable more elderly people to enjoy a dignified, high-quality, and warm late life, achieving a leap from model innovation to ecological maturity, and writing the industry's response with real data and practical results.
(1) From &#34;Medical and Elderly Care Integration&#34; to &#34;Elderly Care and Medical Integration&#34; 3.0 Model
Taikang's exploration of elderly care began in 2007, starting from the initial introduction and reference to the American CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) model, to now forming three major closed loops of &#34;longevity, health, and wealth.&#34; Taikang has achieved an elevation from &#34;traditional life insurance&#34; to &#34;new life insurance,&#34; breaking the two-dimensional model of traditional insurance &#34;payment + investment&#34; by adding the key variable of &#34;service,&#34; transforming into a three-dimensional structural model of &#34;payment + service + investment.&#34;
In the latest strategic statement, Taikang has quietly completed a significant conceptual shift: from the previous &#34;integration of medical care and elderly care&#34; to &#34;integration of elderly care and medical care.&#34; Qiu Jianwei, a member of the Taikang Insurance Group Management Committee and CEO of Taikang Home, explained that in the past, &#34;integration of medical care and elderly care&#34; was driven by &#34;medical care,&#34; emphasizing the public medical system's role in supporting elderly care. Now, with more medical needs arising from elderly care, today's &#34;integration of elderly care and medical care&#34; emphasizes that all medical resources serve &#34;elderly care,&#34; rather than merely supporting &#34;elderly care&#34; as a side effect of services provided to third parties. This represents a series of updates from the service concept, service system, and service content, from internal to external.
Taikang Home has pioneered an innovative model of &#34;one community, one hospital&#34; for the integration of elderly care and medical care, establishing a three-tier safety net for the elderly that includes &#34;emergency assistance - health management - elderly rehabilitation,&#34; providing comprehensive health protection from disease prevention, health management, emergency care, basic diagnosis and treatment, to rehabilitation.
Taikang Xianlin Gulou Hospital and Taikang Home · Su Garden are typical cases of the &#34;Elderly Care and Medical Care Integration 3.0 Model&#34; constructed by Taikang: the data of residents in the elderly care community is fully integrated with the hospital, achieving integrated continuous services from emergency care and treatment to rehabilitation and follow-up, truly realizing &#34;elderly-centered&#34; holistic health services.
(2) Building &#34;Urban Elderly Care Networks&#34; to Meet Multi-level Elderly Care Service Needs
After years of layout and operation, Taikang Home has established 47 projects in 37 key cities across the country, with 27 community operations in 24 cities, serving over 22,000 residents. This has formed a high-quality medical and elderly care network covering the entire country. At the same time, Taikang is leveraging the professional capabilities already formed by large-scale high-quality flagship elderly care communities and rehabilitation hospitals to deeply develop the &#34;flagship CCRC community - urban institutions - community + home care business&#34; three-in-one &#34;urban elderly care network&#34; model to meet people's multi-level elderly care service needs.
Currently, Taikang has piloted the &#34;elderly care network&#34; model for more than two years in Beijing and Shanghai. In particular, the He Pingfu in Dongcheng District, Beijing, and the Lujiazui Jinxiu Mansion in Shanghai have created medium-sized, essential elderly care institutions by revitalizing existing resources and leasing property for renovation. Unlike traditional small and medium-sized elderly care institutions in cities, these projects not only meet essential care needs such as care for the disabled and dementia patients but also provide comprehensive elderly care services to community residents within a 3 to 5-kilometer radius, such as dining, senior universities, and health care services. For example, in health care services, Taikang provides home services such as bathing, nursing, and chronic disease management through various methods, including in-store and at-home services.
According to Qiu Jianwei, after more than two years of piloting, Taikang has found the &#34;elderly care network&#34; model to be sustainable and has begun to expand the pilot scope. This year, Taikang will promote new project layouts and openings in Haidian District, Beijing, and Jing'an District, Shanghai, and extend this model from first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai to cities like Qingdao and Hangzhou. In October of this year, Taikang will also explore segmented business types for the &#34;elderly care network&#34; model by opening a specialized institution for cognitive care in the area where Changping and Haidian meet in Beijing
(3) The &#34;Youth Caregivers&#34; Team Reshapes the Image of the Elderly Care Industry with Professionalism and Respect
The biggest pain point in the elderly care industry is not housing, but people. If funding and models represent the first half of the elderly care industry, then talent is the key to determining the outcome of the second half. Taikang Home has built a &#34;Youth Caregivers&#34; team with an average age of only 32, where those born in the 1990s and 2000s account for over 50%, and 75% have a college degree or higher.
In response to the societal stereotypes of the elderly care industry as &#34;serving people&#34; and &#34;having no future,&#34; Wu Leilei, General Manager of the Human Resources Department at Taikang Home, emphasized the importance of professionalism and value recognition: first, to enhance the professionalism of this service team, and second, to ensure that service personnel feel cared for, recognized, and respected in their actual work.
Taikang Home has established a full-chain training system for &#34;Youth Caregivers&#34; that includes &#34;school cooperation—training bases—professional certification—promotion and development.&#34; It has also set up a five-level certification for caregivers and a dual-channel promotion mechanism. The &#34;1+X Medical and Nursing Case Management&#34; certificate developed by Taikang Home has been included in the Ministry of Education's &#34;Introduction to Vocational Education Programs,&#34; becoming one of the preferred skill certificates for students in elderly care-related majors at nearly 120 higher vocational colleges nationwide.
In addition, Taikang Home offers various awards for spiritual encouragement, providing positive incentives and value orientation. In Taikang's short film &#34;Accompanying You in Old Age,&#34; a young memory care nurse expresses the sentiment of &#34;accompanying life with life&#34;—this is the most authentic portrayal of the professional identity of youth caregivers, and this sense of value is attracting more and more young people to engage in the silver-haired industry.
Taikang Home's systematic talent cultivation model also provides a replicable and sustainable solution to address the talent gap in elderly care services in China and promotes the entire industry towards &#34;professionalization, humanization, and technological advancement.&#34;
Deepening the Silver-haired Ecosystem, Making Elderly Enjoyment Accessible to Thousands of Households
Based on the new development stage, Taikang has not stopped at its current achievements but continues to expand the boundaries of elderly enjoyment ecology. At the conference, Taikang Home launched the comprehensively upgraded &#34;Leisure Enjoyment Service System&#34; and partnered with Air China, Qunar, and the National University for the Elderly, extending service reach into new scenarios such as travel, aviation, and online education, creating a high-quality new life for the elderly where they can &#34;fly whenever they want, play whenever they want, and learn whenever they want.&#34;
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Chen Dongsheng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Taikang Insurance Group
Chen Dongsheng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Taikang Insurance Group, stated that longevity communities are not only homes for the elderly but also platforms for social value recreation, and Taikang Home is a testing ground for the longevity economy. Taikang will continue to deepen cooperation with various parties, responding to the diverse needs of the elderly with innovative models, and co-create a beautiful life in the era of longevity with partners, helping the silver-haired economy to rejuvenate
The longevity era is both a challenge and an opportunity. With the in-depth implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the comprehensive rollout of long-term care insurance, China's elderly care industry is set to enter a golden development period. Taikang will continue to stay true to its original intention, basing itself on insurance, focusing on service, supported by ecology, and driven by talent. It will continuously promote the transformation of the concept from &#34;elderly care&#34; to &#34;enjoying old age&#34; and upgrade practices, allowing high-quality medical and elderly care services to benefit more families. Taikang will contribute to the construction of a healthy China, actively respond to population aging, and support Chinese-style modernization, ensuring that every elder can age gracefully and enjoy their later years with ease

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On April 8, the 2026 World Health Expo opened in Wuhan, focusing on discussions around smart elderly care technology and the silver economy. The population aged 60 and above in China has exceeded 320 million, and the elderly care industry is facing transformation. Taikang is committed to improving the quality of elderly care services with its "new life insurance" model, promoting the shift from "elderly care" to "enjoying old age," responding to the needs of the elderly for health management and a sense of belonging

New life insurance, new ecology, new enjoyment of aging, Taikang creates a Chinese solution for the longevity era