Nanjing Time Bank
Nanjing runs a citywide time bank for elderly care, the first unified city-level system in China. Volunteers help older residents with meals, medical visits, bathing, cleaning and emergencies. Each hour of service goes into a personal time account. Savers can spend the hours on care after they turn 60, pass them to close relatives, or donate them to a public pool. The city government set the rules and runs the accounts inside its My Nanjing app. By mid 2026 it counted about 94,000 registered volunteers, more than 1,300 service stations and 1.47 million completed service orders.
Nanjing operates China's first unified city-level elderly-care time bank, with debt-free hour-based credits, citywide clearing, transfer and donation of stored hours, and strong verified 2026 scale, held back by total dependence on one city government.
M69 Score
Scored against the Money2069 Manifesto — see methodology. Higher = more aligned.
Detailed Rating Breakdown
Issuance Model3x4.0
Credits are created only by verified hours of real care work and are consumed on redemption, so supply is debt-free, elastic and tied directly to labor. The city is the single permissioned administrator, which caps the category.
Spending Power Stability2x3.0
The unit is one hour of care, which anchors value to labor rather than prices. Stability rests on the city honoring future redemption, backed by a dedicated municipal guarantee fund of 10 million yuan a year plus charity funding.
Fiat Independence & Interoperability2x3.0
Accounts are denominated in hours, not yuan, and no fiat reserves stand behind credits. Operations still run on annual fiscal allocations, and the credits compose with nothing outside the city system.
Traction2x3.0
About 94,000 registered volunteers, 1,300+ mutual-aid stations covering over 99% of urban and rural communities, 1.47 million completed service orders and 920,000 stored hours by mid 2026, up from about 48,000 participants in 2023.
Sovereignty1.0
A single municipal government owns the rules, the accounts and the platform. It can change or end the program by administrative decision, and accounts live inside a government app.
Governance2.0
Rules come from government office notices with nine published standards for volunteers and service recipients. The process is public but participants have no formal governance role.
Resilience2.0
Operating since the 2019 pilots and citywide since 2022, restructured and reaffirmed by an October 2025 government notice. Everything depends on one government's continued budget and will.
Inclusivity3.0
Free to join, aimed at elderly and rural residents, and reaches over 99% of communities. Real-name registration through the city app is required, which excludes people outside that system.