Going up

Elevators installed in old residential buildings make life easier for elderly. He Qi and Cao Chen report from Shanghai.

Li Baozhen lives in downtown Shanghai's Hongkou district. For decades the 93-year-old had felt trapped and isolated from the rest of the world due to there being no elevator in the building to service her sixth-floor apartment.

That all changed in February this year when an elevator was installed in the residential building, built nearly half a century ago, allowing Li to avoid the slew of stairs that were previously the only means of access.

Climbing up and down the stairs had become an arduous task for Li in the past decade, only managing one trip downstairs a day with the use of a cane for support.

"I feel free now as I can go outside as long as I want," Li said.

Li is not alone. Statistics shows that in Shanghai, there are more than 220,000 multistory residential buildings without elevators.

"About 70 percent of residents in those buildings are middle-aged or elderly people, for whom climbing up and down a flight of stairs is a physical torture," said Zhang Jianxin from Jia Jia Le - the first social service agency in Shanghai to provide professional help for people who need elevators in their buildings

To free those residents - especially the elderly - from taking the stairs by installing elevators to old multistory residences has become a prominent task in Shanghai and many other cities - all with increasingly aging populations.