'Silver economy' shows promising potential

Jin mentioned that the development of the silver economy will also bring more opportunities for young people.

"The elderly have specialized needs for clothing, food, housing, transportation and healthcare, as well as new demands for leisure, entertainment and exploration. Conservatively estimating, by 2050, the silver economy will provide at least 100 million job opportunities," he said.

Guan Weijiang, who has been doing business in children's toys in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, for 10 years, has intuitively felt the consumption potential in the elderly sector. He stated that over the past year, his online store has seen a surge in orders. Many elderly consumers prefer fitness and educational toys, with users over 50 years old accounting for 30 percent of the store's customer base.

Guan said that the search and order volume for toys among consumers aged 55 and above are gradually increasing, with particularly rapid growth in transactions for fitness toys that promote light exercise.

"This may become an extremely promising new track," he said.

According to e-commerce platform Taobao, over the past year, searches for elderly toys on Taobao have increased by 121 percent year-on-year, with transaction volumes increasing by over 70 percent year-on-year. The proportion of consumers aged 55 and above is gradually increasing, and the transaction speed continues to accelerate. More toy industry merchants have also sensed the business opportunities in elderly toys and entered the market.

Traveling is another major part of leisure for elderly people. In recent years, various themed and content-rich tourist trains carrying elderly tourists traveled across the country, allowing elderly travelers to enjoy magnificent landscapes.

On Feb 11, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments released the action plan for increasing silver tourism trains to promote service consumption development, proposing various specific measures around increasing the service supply of silver tourism, strengthening the guarantee of age-appropriate facilities, enhancing the service level of trains specialized for silver-tourism, among others.

Riding on the policy tailwind, various regions have launched trains specially designed for silver tourism. Last month, a train departed from Liuzhou station in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region with 270 middle-aged and elderly passengers, embarking on a four-day leisure trip along the coast of western Guangdong.

A travel agency affiliated with China Railway said that in March, it will launch a 12-day spring trip project traveling to Jiangxi, Guangdong and Hunan provinces. China Railway said that by 2027, it will design more than 100 high-quality silver tourism railway routes, create 160 sets of silver tourism trains with specialized elderly care, and expand the scale of silver tourism trains to over 2,500.

The China Tourism Academy said silver tourism is becoming one of the fastest-growing sectors in the silver economy. Among them, the travel booking volume for people aged 50 and above continues to grow, and the silver population accounts for approximately 64 percent of weekday travelers, significantly higher than other age groups.