Pension Issues for Rural Elderly
The current rural elderly care issue is indeed spreading to today's middle-aged generation. The OP raises several key points:
On one hand, elderly parents tend to be stubborn and insist on spending their golden years in the countryside. The problem is obvious: villages are mostly empty now, and medical facilities are poor. Returning to the village means fully renovating a house, which can cost as much as buying an apartment in a county seat. Even renting costs roughly the same over 10–20 years.
On the other hand, bringing them to your work city can strain both the original family and your own household, sparking all sorts of conflicts. Buying a separate place for them is prohibitively expensive.
The ideal compromise is for parents to agree to move to the county seat and buy an apartment near the hospital.
The pressure now falls on people in their 30s and 40s.