China's Rudong County in the province of Jiangsu could be the harbinger of worst things to come - how state population controls led to the graying of communities with not enough young people to support the old.

By 2015, experts warn that China's population will plateau, most likely at 1.4 billion, and start to decline steadily. Some of them see an aging and shrinking populace that can trigger an unprecedented crisis.

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Rudong began population controls a whole decade before the rest of China. Both the country and province are famous nationwide for their excellent schools and above-average students. But now, there are not that many students left.

A schoolteacher said only one elementary school remained in a township that used to have 14. In a school, there are typically 460 students now, around half of the school-goers ten years ago.

The problem started when most of the students' parents took jobs in the cities. As migrants, they have no welfare or education benefits there so they leave their children to their grandparents in the countryside. Experts say a generation gap between children and their guardians lead to long-term issues.

Meanwhile, in a neighboring town, senior citizens gather for a meal their state-funded retirement home. Most of them live on little or zero income with no children to take care of them.

In the past couple of years, this town went from having one retirement facility to having five. Private retirement homes are not in the count, where children foot the costs of caring for their parents.

Starting in the 1960s, Rudong County carried out a pilot family planning program, ten years before the country's one-child policy kicked in by 1979. The nation's leaders praised the county, touting it as a success story to be followed nationwide.

Fifteen years from now, estimates show six out of ten Rudong County locals will be 60 years old or older while the list of people at least a hundred years old grows.

Some Rudong County residents are keenly aware that after the earliest adopters of measures against a population, they are now the first to deal with the problem of supporting an aging society.

They say it was only yesterday when China swore by the benefits of the one-child policy, but now, to urge people to have more children is a 180-degree turnaround.

Tagsaging crisis, retirement home, Rudong County, One Child Policy