Research progress on spatial behaviors of the elderly in China

Along with the increase of aging population and empty-nest families in China,a series of social issues with the aging population have become the focus of academic studies.The Researches at macro-level,such as aging process and ways of caring for the aged,provide policy guidance for the government.On the other hand,if we want to estimate the effects of the government's policies,especially for aged people's daily lives,we should analyze the interactions between the elderly individuals and the environment at micro-level,namely,the research on spatial behaviors of the elderly.Moreover,the research helps provide guidance for urban planning which could improve aged people's life quality and promote social justice in space resources by controlling structural evolution of urban spaces based on the demands of the elderly's lives and their living conditions.In this paper we discuss the current multi-disciplinary researches on the elderly's daily lives in China.Based on the awareness of the elderly's lifestyles and Maslow's hierarchy of needs,we conclude that health seeking,shopping,and leisure behavior are the main activities of senior citizens' daily lives in China.Therefore,this paper focuses on these three types of behaviors,reviews the progress of correlational studies by combing through the domestic literature on the subject,then summarizes the behavioral characteristics of the elderly and the influencing factors,especially the interactive mechanism between urban space and residents' behavior during the transition time in China.We synthetically assess the advantage,disadvantage and inadequacy of the studies we have covered,based on the analyses of the current status and the trend of the elderly's behaviors at home.By comparing to the research status of international geographical gerontology which is composed of multiple academic disciplines,we predict the trend of further studies in the macro background of social-cultural and spatial environment changes,and expect that the high-level needs of self-fulfillment of the elderly could be met in a favorable environment with supporting service facilities and community services.