Người già đi tàu điện ngầm ở Hàn Quốc, hành trình chính là niềm vui

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An 85-year-old retired (đã nghỉ hưu) interior designer, Mr. Lee is one of Seoul’s throngs of subway-riding seniors, who take advantage of the country’s longstanding policy of free fares for people older than 65 and spend their days riding the trains to the end of the line, or to nowhere in particular, and sometimes back again. On long summer days — with Seoul’s temperatures averaging highs of more than 87 degrees in August — the air-conditioning is robust (điều hòa không khí rất mạnh), the people-watching is engrossing (choán hết thì giờ, phải để nhiều tâm trí vào) and the 200 miles of subway tracks in the city are almost limitless in their possibilities for urban wanderings (lang thang trong đô thị).

“At home, I’d just be bored, lying around,” Mr. Lee said.

Older adults who ride free of charge make up about 15 percent of Seoul’s annual ridership, according to data from the subway’s two main operators. The riders have become such an established part of the city’s fabric (kết cấu) that they have a nickname — “Jigong Geosa,” derived from the phrase “free subway” — and the lines and stations frequented by them are well known.

Mr. Lee and his wife live in a cramped apartment (căn hộ chật chội), subsisting on a pension of a few hundred dollars, and his wife is largely homebound after five knee surgeries (phẫu thuật đầu gối). For him, Mr. Lee said, there’s no better way to while away the days (giết thì giờ cho hết ngày) than to go for a free ride.