In honor of the traditional Chinese festival of Chongyang, celebrated on October 18th as a holiday honoring the elderly and enjoying autumn, the Health Talk CGTN program visited Rugao, known as the 'City of World Longevity,' in Jiangsu Province, eastern China.
This region exhibits high health indicators: approximately 31 out of every 100,000 people live to be one hundred years old, and the average life expectancy reaches 83.12 years.
An example of the lifestyle is Gao Tingkuan, who is 105 years old; he wakes up at 5 am, rides a tricycle for groceries, and cooks for himself. Additionally, 96-year-old Zhang Minde maintains an active lifestyle by doing dishes, watering flowers, and cleaning. Local residents maintain good well-being through simple daily activities such as cleaning, listening to audiobooks, tea drinking, and playing ball with friends, painting a picture of 'proactive health.'
Michael Levitt, a Nobel laureate in Chemistry in 2013 and a professor at Stanford University, noted that healthspan is a complex issue shaped by social and behavioral aspects, as well as lifestyle changes that people must adopt.
He emphasized that some factors influencing healthspan are not medical in nature but are related to lifestyle: proper nutrition, moderate alcohol consumption, non-smoking, time spent in nature, physical exercise, and having friends. Levitt made this statement during an exclusive CGTN interview at the 2026 Conference on Joint Innovations in Disease Prevention and Translational Achievements.
A team from Xiamen University has been studying anti-aging methods for over ten years. Their latest findings indicate that a gut microbe product called lithocholic acid may activate a pathway associated with a longer and healthier life.
The research is led by Lin Shengcai, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Lin's team studied why hunger triggers genes associated with longevity. It was found that mice fed 70% of their normal diet showed more than a tenfold increase in lithocholic acid levels after a fasting period. This substance promoted the repair of muscle damage and improved endurance in older mice. According to Lin's team, in longevity tests, lithocholic acid extended the animals' lives by approximately 5%.
Ren Yuan, a professor at the Institute of Population Studies, Fudan University, believes that increasing life expectancy should be viewed as a positive phenomenon. He argues that people are not only creators of wealth but also custodians of social order and participants in a functioning society.
In his view, the growth of human longevity reflects broader social progress, which is largely driven by advancements in science and technology and aims to improve economic development, strengthen healthcare systems, and enhance social well-being. These elements, he says, form the basis of human lifespan and health.