Fei Lai/ Shanghai Daily news

Maomao is autistic, and at age 16 is a handful for his father, who is bringing up the boy alone.

As Maomao grows bigger and stronger, his neighbors have increasingly come to fear his unusual behavior. And his dad, a bus company electrician surnamed Lu, is worried that the boy might harm himself or someone else if left alone.

So every day when Lu goes to work, he locks the boy in a steel cage that's about 2 meters wide and barely tall enough to allow the teenager to stand up straight.

For four hours every work day, Maomao's only companion in the cage is a torn quilt, soiled by his own urine.

"I don't know what else to do with him but put him in a cage," Lu told Shanghai Daily. "It causes suffering for both him and me."

Lu said he's tried for years to find treatment and custodial care for his son. But nothing has worked so far, and he and his neighborhood committee continue to search for a solution.

Xiao Zeping, head of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, admitted there is a lack of beds at city hospitals for people with developmental disorders and that other treatment services are also in short supply.