China has more female centenarians

BEIJING

A total of 47,773 centenarians were living on the Chinese mainland as of Oct. 16, with women comprising 80.1 percent, according to a China Gerontological Society report issued yesterday.

Zhao Baohua, executive vice president of the society, said there were 9,505 male centenarians and 38,268 female centenarians as of Oct. 16.

The number of centenarians in cities stood at 12,457, and another 35,316, or 73.92 percent, were residing in rural regions.

According to the report, Luo Meizhen, a 127-year-old woman of Yao ethnicity in southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is the oldest person living on the Chinese mainland. With a combined age of 214, Zhang Wanjing and Wang Yuxiu, a married couple from south China’s Hainan Province, are the oldest living couple on the mainland.