The average life expectancy rate (the expected length of a person's life) in China is 76.4 years. This means, on average, Chinese people live to be 76.4 years old. Moreover, over 10% of China’s population is over 65 years old. That means over 10% of the 1.411 billion people living in China are over 65 years old. That’s a lot of people! In fact, it seems as if those over 65 have formed their own community, or sub-society, here in China. So what exactly do they do? (For reference, the U.S. has a life expectancy rate of 78.7 years.)
Living in China, I’ve noticed there are a lot of older people out and about--at least many more so than I’ve encountered in America. In America, I didn’t have much contact with older people, as my only grandparent lives abroad. Sometimes I would notice some elderly people strolling around my local mall, but that was about it. In China, elderly people are very active and are always out. This was very different from my experience at home and I wanted to learn more about some of their day-to-day activities.
