Hong Kong: Aged and Abandoned
Hong Kong is one of the world’s richest cities, so why are thousands of elderly residents collecting rubbish to survive?
Office workers rush past, oblivious to the army of grey-haired residents toiling in the shadows of Hong Kong’s soaring skyscrapers.
Dragging trolleys laden with waste, they sell whatever they can collect for just a few dollars.
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Hong Kong is home to 64 billionaires and has the highest number of Rolls-Royces per capita in the world.
But one in three elderly people lives in poverty – one of the highest senior poverty rates in the developed world.
And with a rapidly ageing population, Hong Kong could soon face a “silver tsunami”.
101 East asks why so many elderly residents are struggling to survive in one of the world’s richest cities.
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Published On 5 May 2016