Since April, the Chinese government has imposed strong measures to prevent the housing prices from overheating. However, five months after the tough regulatory policies were announced, the housing prices remain steady. On Monday, Beijing Statistic Bureau started a plan to find out how many houses in the city are empty. BON’s George Liu has more.

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For many years now migrant workers have flooded to China's cities looking for a better life. Recently here on BON we reported on the problem of the children that many of those workers leave behind. But at the other end of the scale are elderly parents who remain at home, sometimes ill-equipped to look after them selves.

Guiyang is the capital of one of China's poorest provinces, Guizhou. And it has its share of older people whose children have migrated to the cities – the so-called "empty nesters". Now authorities here have set up an initiative in communities around the city.

It aims to encourage neighbors to cooperate to help elderly "empty nesters". Those who live alone are asked to apply for "neighbor help cards" like this through community offices. These will then find volunteers to partner up with them and offer help when they need it.

The system has been running in the Hongyun resdienetial community for some time now.75-year-old Yu Jingyun and her husband are typical "empty nesters".

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It was almost a year ago when the curtains came down on the Beijing Games. The stadiums are empty and there isn't a sports star in sight. But thousands of people from across China still flock here every day for their very own Olympic experience.

The Bird's Nest gets as many as 20,000 visitors a day. They pay the equivalent of about seven dollars to enter the empty stadium and buy souvenirs.

Outside, thousands of visitors from every corner of China snap photos and look on at what has become something of a national treasure.