Not all elderly people are confined to their bed or home, surrounded by a gaggle of nurses, as evidenced by a veteran in Pingtung, Wu Tzu-hsiu (武自修), who remains hale and hearty at 100.
Born on Jan. 1, 1914, in China’s Henan Province, Wu joined the army at 16 — an experience that he said made him strong and independent.
Wu settled in Pingtung City after retiring from the air force as a master sergeant. He has never married and has maintained the lifestyle of a military man, including using wastewater from washing his face and brushing his teeth to flush the toilet.
Photo: Lee Lee-fa, Taipei Times
His neighbor, a woman surnamed Luo (羅), said she was especially impressed at how Wu has kept up his habit of cycling every morning.
“Wu carries his identification card with him wherever he goes because no one really believes that he could be a centenarian and still cycle around,” Luo said.
Wu said his vision is still clear and his voice remains strong. Aside from a little difficulty hearing, he is as fit as a fiddle.
Although he owns a scooter, Wu said he does not use it much, preferring to rely on his bicycle.
He only uses the scooter to visit friends who live far from him. However, as the years went by and more of his friends succumbed to old age, he now just bikes around for exercise.
He avoids traditional markets because of the crowds, as his reflexes are not as good as before, he said, adding that he usually cycles to the convenience stores nearby to buy groceries.
Wu said he does not have any “secrets” to staying fit and strong, only leading a simple life.
Neither does he follow any specific diet, eating both meat and vegetables, he said.
He has also kept the same schedule as he did in the military, waking up at 5am and sleeping by 10pm, as well as exercising and drinking lots of water.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
RSS