By the end of last December, over 12.6 million urban and rural residents were covered by the pension insurance program, said the Guizhou Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security.

Among the total number, urban residents made up only 340,000. Approximately four million senior citizens over 60 years old have begun to receive pensions.

The new pilot rural pension program and urban pension program began in 2009 and 2011, respectively. By July 2012, the whole province was covered by pension insurance.

In the last three years, Guizhou has received 6.1 billion yuan ($980.9 million) from the central government, with roughly 2.03 billion yuan ($326.4 million) allocated to cities in the province.