Is Taiwan a senior citizen friendly country?

is taiwan a friendly country for senior citizen like transportation,travel around the country,care for them etc.?

Yes. You can push your way onto buses and trains if you’re old, or barge into the front of a queue and nobody gets visibly angry. Doctors will see you first, even if you’re at the back of the line and a step away from inevitable death, out of some bizarre filial piety rationale. You’re miserable and the weight of the world is on your shoulders. It’s important that you maintain a stoic veneer, though, with a shriveled, puckered face like you’ve just eaten a whole lemon tree. You’ve spent your whole life working for this entitlement. Why not exploit it to the maximum? I can’t wait to get old so that I can charge to the doors of the MRT, shouldering all and sundry out of the way, with a miserable look on my face, ten minutes before I reach my destination.
You even get to sit on the dark blue seats, which is an added bonus.

Guy

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Mixed. My parents have visited, and they’re getting on in years. They’re really impressed by how much people want to help them out - sometimes awkwardly so, in that my mother doesn’t feel like she needs a seat on the MRT, yet people insist on giving her one. (I suspect however that non-Caucasian older people may not get the same treatment.)

However, the infrastructure doesn’t quite measure up - the big issue is lack of sidewalks, so walking is a bit of a pain, and the, er, jolty driving of the buses is something of a hazard.

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it’ll be the army of the elderly, sonny boy.
get out of their way

Yeah the sidewalks are problematic (if there even are any).

Sidewalks are reserved for scooter parking. People should walk in the street. The older ones closer to the center.

Guy

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It’s clear you haven’t met me yet.

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Ha! I pretend they aren’t there or that I haven’t seen them. They get all agitated when they’re being ignored. Shaking like epileptic rats.

Guy

I gave a bunch of people an earful today for climbing onto the bus before i had a chance to get off. Make a bloody opening, lemme get off and then you can race for the seats for christ’s sakes

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I make myself large when I disembark. I’m not a big guy, but I spread my arms. If the brave among them try to push through me, I simply ignore them and block their way. I can’t stand casual rudeness and blatant disregard of public transport etiquette.

Guy

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As an aside and totally off-topic, how decrepit must one be to attain “senior citizen” status? I’m 55. Am I allowed to use the dark blue seats on the MRT and the ones reserved for the pregnant and virtually dead, on buses? Am I permitted to use them or must I wait a few more years until I’m eaten up by cancer and various coronaviruses? I can’t wait for the opportunity to be able to elbow people out of the way as I charge for the door, 10 minutes before my stop, with no sanction and social reprimand, because I’m OLD!
Serious question, though. At what age does society deem it acceptable for one to stumble around like a horrible, selfish, entitled prick?

Guy

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There’s a lot of old folk that live in my building. Only the oldies talk to me and my kids…The younger crowd can’t even get words out let alone sentences most of the time. I think the buses aren’t helping Jimi.

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I don’t have problems with old folk in social situations, like chats and shit. I get along just fine with them. I love their stories about their macabre youth when smashing cats with rocks and eating dogs boiled alive was a whole barrel of laughs.
It’s their attitude to public transport, queues and general social etiquette that pisses on my battery.

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Well, I’m 29. :wink:

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I have thought it is not all age but partly culture.

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No

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Please elaborate.

There are actual senior citizens here and I’d like them to comment :grin:.
In the home country senior citizens get a lot of perks such as free travel , fuel, subsidised phone, decent pension , subsidised healthcare, discounts on public amenities.

Here in Taiwan I think they get a small discount for travel only. They get a pension if fortunate but many didn’t have one as the laobao is relatively new. In reality it depends on if you were a retired civil servant or not in many cases as to how well you were looked after.

Now the system is a lot better.
I like the way you can claim a tax rebate for all senior citizens in your household :grin:.

I’m still waiting to find out what constitutes a “senior citizen”. What age must you be to qualify as one? 60? 65? 70? 80?

My grandparents don’t have any pension (well apart from like 3500 per month) and they seem fine.

It’s friendly in some ways (healthcare, which is evidenced by how every single hospital is packed with senior citizens) and not so much in some other ways (traffic). Many Taiwanese-Americans end up coming back to retire because healthcare is a disaster in the US.