In Taiwan, people think a lot about their health. Both for themselves and for others, and this concernment is not just limited to persons in private. Most companies and schools are doing a lot of effort to keep their premises and employees clean and healthy too.
Especially disease control is very widely used here in Taipei. Maybe sometimes because people are just paranoid, but probably more because everyone is living so close to one another.
In my school which is called KaiNan High School of Commerce and Industry in the papers I got before I got here, but is actually known as KaiNan Vocational High School around this place, you will be scanned with a heat sensing camera when you enter the school, and later in the lunch break, they'll check if your brain has grown any with this strange device on the above picture. I usually get 36 %. Must be from all the mandarin and taiwanese I'm learning. It's just about the limit actually. I think if you get much more than 37 % they will take you to the doctor to see if you have a disease or perhaps been doping yourself.
When you first arrive in Taiwan, should you choose to visit, you will probably notice a lot of people wearing masks very quickly.
A lot of people make the mistake and think that they're afraid of H1N1 or pollution, but actually such masks wont help very much against those.
No, actually the people usually wear them because they have the flu, in order to not spread the disease too much, so whatever you do, don't look at them like they're silly. They're actually doing you a favor.
The people around here are also very fond of medicins. Every other television commercial is for some sort of new drug, vitamin or health-drink you didn't know you needed. But more importantly, there's also a lot of traditional types of medicins. The one above is a not-too-well tasting soup (called 四物湯 - xi wu tang) that can I eat to make it easier for you to sleep. Joni uses it a lot because it can also help if you drink it right before and after you have your period. Just two days ago, some guys found out that this soup can also make your hair start growing again if you are bald and willing to give the soup three months to work.
And then, everything you eat has some sort of health benefit, be it sweet potato leaves, seaweed or jellyfish. "This is really good for your skin" is probably what I'm hearing the most. The runner-up is "this is especially good for smaller kids growing up, so we give it to our kids a lot to make them taller". Both seem to work in some way. Most of the people around here have really healthy skin despite the air pollution, acid rain and strong sun, and the younger people (in my age) are actually almost as high as I am in average (which means they're usually quite tall compared to the elder generations.)
The honey-covered Cheerios are, however, does not have amazing effects on your health. They just help lower and reduce risk.
Still, I have a lot yet to cover about this topic, so I will probably write something about the pretty good medical system they have here when I know some more about it.
On another note, this is actually my blog post number 50 (out of everything, not just the Taiwan posts.
May you live long and prosper.
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