Wheelchair-bound tourists are able to visit the Palace Museum in Beijing with new barrier-free services being made available.

For Xie Zhanyuan, getting in and out of his house had been a major challenge until now.

The 52-year-old resident of Daju Hutong in Beijing's Dongcheng district suffered from infantile paralysis and uses crutches. The high doorsill and uneven ground were a problem for him. He no longer has to worry.

By the end of this November, about 5,000 Beijingers with disabilities will have free handicap accessible equipment installed in their homes.

On July 1 this year, the amended Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities took effect. It benefits the nation's 83 million disabled.

It mandates measures for a barrier-free environment, the building and retrofitting of accessible facilities, eliminating barriers in information and communications, facilitating access to public information for persons with disabilities, and research and development of new technologies and products to help the disabled.

Cities like Beijing and Shanghai have gone further.

The city of Shanghai became the first city in the country to invest resources to make life easier for its 942,000 disabled residents. Besides retrofitting public facilities to make them handicap accessible, the government has also helped retrofit the homes of 30,000 disabled persons.

The city of Beijing has 999,000 disabled residents. The retrofitting project in the capital city targets the seriously disabled and those in poor living conditions.

Some districts including Dongcheng, where Xie lives, and Fengtai have completed the installation.