// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
'I'd talk to the TV': The paid companions bringing warmth to China's lonely
Watch: Why the lonely in China are hiring 'temporary children'
"The biggest difficulty really was the loneliness. Sometimes, if I wanted to talk to someone I'd talk to the TV."
Yang, 91, lives on the outskirts of China's bustling capital Beijing. Following the death of her husband, she was so lonely that she says she even considered the possibility of voluntary euthanasia.
"I asked my son about it but he told me it was banned. I told him that if it ever becomes legal I want to do it - I didn't want to live any longer."
Suffering glaucoma, with failing eyesight, she was unable to even do basic things like adjust the controls on her air conditioner.
Cases such as Yang's have become increasingly common in Chinese cities which Associate Professor Teresa Kuan, from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says is "exacerbated by the structure of society and the modes by which people interact".
There are many causes of isolation in China. Like when rural migrants pursue economic opportunities, leaving behind close-knit support networks for urban centres where loneliness and uncertainty can be difficult to overcome, or when graduates uproot themselves chasing employment on the other side of the country.
Suffering from glaucoma and failing eyesight, 91-year-old Yang found simple tasks and daily life increasingly difficult on her own.
But now a growing "loneliness industry" has emerged to try to fill these gaps in people's lives.
Yang says her life has been transformed by one of these services - Wang Yingwei and his electric scooter delivery team - who started coming over twice a day with hot meals but whose help extends far beyond that.