Mid-Autumn Festival is traditionally a time for family reunions, but this year many elderly nursing home residents in Harbin, Heilongjiang province decided against going home to spend the holiday with their children.

An investigation by Harbin Daily found that 70 percent of the elderly people they interviewed refused to leave their nursing homes during the holiday.

For most of the residents, this was not because they did not want to see their families, but because they did not want to bother their exhausted children. And many claimed that they enjoyed spending the holiday at the nursing home too.

“I didn’t spend this three-day holiday at home since I didn’t want to disturb my children and wanted to give them more spare time to have a rest. They are too tired during working days,” said one 76-year-old resident, surnamed Zhang.

Zhang also told reporters that another major reason she refused her four children’s invitation to spend Mid-Autumn Festival in her hometown was that she feels she does not have a common language with their children, since their lifestyles and schedules are so different.

Meanwhile, the reporters visiting institutions such as Harbin’s First Social Welfare Institute, Ankang Social Welfare Institute and Elderly Caring Service Center in Harbin’s Daoli district over the holiday found a festival atmosphere in many of the nursing homes. They were invited to watch performances and have a dinner party.

Some children even came to have dinner with their parents in the nursing homes. One man surnamed Liu brought his family to Runfu Elderly Caring Home to have a delicious dinner with his father. The family gathered in his father’s bedroom at the home, and tucked into twelve dishes, including braised pork chops, steamed fish and crab.

Staff members said that Runfu’s on-site restaurant had been fully booked for more than two weeks, with more than 20 families making reservations for the holiday.