Review of EVA Air flight from Taipei to Paris in Business

This was the return flight from a business trip to Taipei, with a detour to BKK via SIN:
CDG-TPE: BR88 (B777-300ER)
TPE-SIN: SQ877 (A330-300)
SIN- BKK: SQ982 (B777-200ER)
BKK-TPE: BR76 (B777-300ER) in French only as of now
TPE-CDG: BR87 (B777-300ER) You are here
The day for the flight out of CDG was constrained by a family gathering set on January 1st a long time in advance.
The day for the return flight was constrained by a meeting in Bangkok on January 25th which was set at the last moment: the cost of flying directly from there to CDG had one more digit than returning to TPE to catch my return TPE-CDG flight whose date was the only parameter that could be changed.
In short, I had zero flexibility to select the dates for this roundtrip on Eva Air. The good news was that contrary to the flight out of CDG, the return flight would be operated with a Hello Kitty jet, a livery that had eluded me so far. This is very bad news for you if you are allergic to this character sooo 可愛い kawaii (in Japanese) or 可愛 kě'ài (in Chinese), but the title pictures should have warned you.

The international travel agency used by my company pretends that the seat is assigned when checking in, but I was not impressed by this claim: I only needed to visit BR’s website to find this simple and efficient seat diagram. This diagram is that of the flight that I had booked originally, but it remains relevant for this report because when I checked in in BKK, Seat 11K was still available.

The same travel agency did not seem to know either that I could select my menu in advance and, even better, choose it from a list which was vastly longer than the standard choice available on board. This kind of feature seemed to be for seasoned avgeek travelers only.

Since I used the French version of the website, the title is “dîner léger” (= light dinner), but the menu was entirely in English. The languages available reflect BR’s network. Note in particular the languages mentioned on the top: BR distinguishes Mandarin written in traditional characters 繁體中文 in use in Taiwan 台灣, Cantonese also written in traditional characters in use in Hong-Kong 香港 and in Macau 澳門, and last Mandarin written in simplified characters in use in (literally) Continental China 中国大陆, i.e. Mainland China minus Hong-Kong and Macau, which I sometimes call Visa China, because that is where I need a costly visa. In all cases, “it’s Chinese”, but not quite the same one.

This was the breakfast offering. The boursin omelette did not tempt me, I always have reservations about dishes claimed to be “savory” and I therefore selected the Taiwanese congee, despite the misspelling, like on the way in. Why not choose the most attractive option?

Now that the stage is set, this report begins after deplaning from BKK, in the corridor at the Arrivals level, where a sign on the ground told me that the distance to the transit access was 280 m.

Connecting to the internet on the airport’s free wifi network was easy enough to do it while walking and I could reach a well-known website before reaching the duty free area which is tempting passengers before they either go to the immigration (on the left) or to the Departures level on the right.

I was connecting, so after going through a security check like a breeze, I only needed to go up one level to reach the Departures level. Bad luck: my flight was not departing from Gate C3 (the Hello Kitty themed gate), but the neighboring one.

I did not even have a baby to justify taking a dose of Hello Kitty world in this baby care room.

And I of course had no time to have dinner in this Hello Kitty restaurant in town.

No premature Hello Kitty for me, and I was going to wait for my flight in the lounge. It is located upstairs, reachable for instance by this escalator along the green wall where you recognize the shape of the island of Taiwan.

The mezzanine overlooks one side the duty-free shops and on the other the immigration booths which were not fascinating.

Eva Air’s lounge is easy to find

A Pepper robot seen here from the welcome counter, and therefore looking at the exit.

Pepper has been developed to "improve interactions with customers”, but the interaction with the human staff at the counter was already satisfactory.

A deserted work room just after the welcome counter.

There is a long corridor, with sofas on the left, and a counter in front of windows overlooking the landside area. The bathrooms and further away the buffet area are on the right.

Daily newspapers and magazines; the only English language newspapers are the Taipei Times and the New York Times, top left.

The decoration at the far end of the corridor does not leave users indifferent.

Behind these sorts of bookshelves highlighted with light ramps:

… there is this decorated pillar which reminds me of science fiction movies in the 80’s.

Some armchairs are unusual too. I like originality as long as it remains functional, which was the case, so I liked this “vintage-futuristic” design.

There was a cyclic message prohibiting pictures and videos in the lounge to respect other passengers’ privacy. I did not receive any “no photo” rebuke, but I took these pictures in discreet mode, or when the lounge was emptying when boarding time approached.
The buffet, in a recessed area right of the corridor when coming from the welcome counter was much less spaceship-like, and belonged more to IKEA’s professional furniture catalogue.

The plates (flat and for soup) are quite standard, with a discrete decor, but the trays are stark Eva Air corporate green

Why write down the names of the hot meals?

… when you can simply take pictures?

You would have recognized spaghetti, but maybe not chicken.

On the other hand, there should have been meat balls and rice noodles there

… but the labeling was misleading.

Various dim sums

Soup for rice noodles and mushroom tofu thick soup with parsley

Hot sweet potatoes are typical Taiwanese street food

These sausages on their rotating heating device are typical 7-Eleven or Family Mart stuff

Taiwan is not the place to be if you are a cheese lover and this selection exemplifies it.

Ice creams do not belong to the Chinese and Taiwanese tradition, but they know how to import good ones, and I liked these.

Set of silverware and chopsticks identical to those provided on boar in J.

I’ll let the specialists comment on the wines and spirits.

A standard coffee machine and a selection of tea bags

Beers and miscellaneous soft drinks

After helping myself, I settled at the counter, in front of these multi-standard power ports and of the windows.

The windows provide visual space, but alas, no view on the apron: they overlook the landside areaji.

I had at least the satisfaction of eating better food than in front of me

Wow! The waiting line at the security check (followed by the immigration counters) was much worse than usual.

The toilet seat is typically Japanese, but the controls are in Chinese, which you can more or less understand if you know Japanese, and with the added help of the pictograms, translations are not needed.

A floral decoration

Preparing a Flight Report was a good enough reason for taking a shower and I went to the welcome counter (not to the robot, although its height was closer to mine, and it was supposed to improve social interactions). All showers were busy when I enquired; in exchange for my BP, I received this buzzer similar to those used by some restaurants.

The showers have poetic Chinese names for traveler who are not fluent in Latin numbers, and for those who are below par in both Latin and Chinese, there is pictogram. The Land of Smile (微笑大地), represented by a peace dove was perfect for me.

The room was overall 1.71 m wide and 2.55 m deep (of which 1.26 m was for the shower) which means that it was not cramped.

There were all relevant supplies

With another flower for decoration

Soap, « repairing shampoo » and « repairing conditioner » (quote)

The repairing shampoo did not seem to work well, and cleaning between each use had not been thorough: I found these hairs between the shower and the sink, admittedly in a place where you would never set foot.

Having a shower was not a must, but it nevertheless felt very good afterwards. I was ready to leave the lounge, clean and dry.

And reach Gate C4 which was a reasonable distance away.

In TPE, passengers pre-board first in a room downstairs where there are no facilities (apart from toilets), but enough seats for all.

The promise was held: tonight’s bird is indeed a Hello Kitty jet, of the 777-300ER kind (Eva Air also has Hello Kitty A321s, but I doubt they could reach CDG).

Priorities are respected for boarding, and this time, I go left here.

Chinese and English language newspapers at the end of the jetbridge.

Smiling FA at the plane door.

The seats are oriented towards the windows

But as I highlighted it in my flight report from CDG, they are actually very far from the windows: it is impossible to look at the landscape when you are seated, especially during the phases in flight when you must wear your seat belt. It is a killer design mistake on daytime, but tolerable at night, which was going to be the case during this flight which was leaving around midnight and reaching destination before dawn in winter.

There is a Hello Kitty pillow on the seat

Since I was among the first passengers in the rear of the J cabin, I had no excuse for not going further to give a look at the Y+ cabin, in 2-4-2 layout.

They too had a cute Hello Kitty pillow, and a water bottle

I could go even further and have a peek at the Y cabin. It does not show well, but the layout was 3-3-3, which is unfortunately becoming a rarity in 777s nowadays. The lifejackets under the seats seemed to not be branded Hello Kitty, possibly to deter passengers from taking selfies with them.

They too had Hello Kitty cushions; they looked the same, but an insider told me that they are not as thick as in business class.

Emergency exit and bulkhead seats are identified by an anti-macassar with a different color, not present in Y+.

I returned to the J cabin where the passengers were settling in (I believe there was only one empty seat overall in J)

There was a seatbelt with its airbag on of the belt halves. The armrest on the rights goes up to its nominal position by simply pressing lightly on it, but it must be down during take-off and landing.

The seat controls are simple and efficient

There was a shelf for magazines and a bottle of water, an IFE remote control in its housing, AC and USB ports, the connectors for the headphones, a miniature reading lamp. This picture illustrates an overall design error of this seat: there is zero space for personal belongings during takeoff and landing. Even the magazine shelf must be empty: everything must be in the overhead bins which are big enough to hold all hand luggage, even if all passengers maximized them (nobody seems to care about the official weight limit). In this regard, each and every J seat is just as inconvenient as a seat on an emergency exit row.

I did not even take the headphones from its wrapping, but it was the same as that on the way in:

Some comments on the magazine pocket.

It first contains Hello Kitty slippers that my wife was delighted (?!) to see me wear at home, with a coordinated bag.

And a safety card with a specific design that I asked to keep as a souvenir (yes, you can ask, and receive a smile too…)

I let you compare with the safety instruction card which inadvertently fell into my hand luggage when deplaning on the way in (this too can happen…)

The IFE screen looks nearly small because it is somewhat far from the seat, once turned away from is storage position. It however had to be in stored position during take-off and landing, which meant that the visibility was somewhat reduced during the safety demonstration.

But before the safety demonstration, we had this Hello Kitty drawing cycling on the screen.

Welcome on board from Hello Kitty herself!

The FA who brought me a welcome drink (fruit juice for me) and also a glass of water at my request did not look anywhere near Hello Kitty, though.

Together with a rather irrelevant chocolate and an oshibori

The amenity kit is given in this bag

It is a semi-rigid Rimowa brand

The contents are nothing out of the ordinary

Eva Air also provides an excellent quality pajama (size M or L), discreetly marked Eva Air, which replaced without regret a badly worn one which deserved throwing away. It was not the same color as that received on the way in; I with it had been branded Hello Kitty, but Mrs. Marathon disagrees with me on this matter.

All these supplies were discreetly sealed to avoid any reuse by mistake of a used one. It looks better than a plastic bag and is just as efficient. It is actually easier to open and reduces the amount of non-recyclable waste.

I should have asked to keep this collector Hello Kitty menu.

But I took a picture of each English language page, long before it was recovered.

If ordering Krug rosé champagne with a Hello Kitty at the bottom of the page makes you sick…

…there is a vomit bag (with a Hello Kitty in order to accelerate the process)

You need to take the table tray from a slit; its size is commendable once unfolded.

I was under the impression that it was too high with regards to the seat, but my measure proved that I was wrong.

BR’s safety demonstration is on a dance theme of a nearly abstract background

You are still considered as a small child (小孩) even when you obviously reached your adult height.

The FA in her tight Eva Air uniform appearing suddenly at the end of safety demonstration looked quite rigid and out of place

… even though she bowed gracefully.

Eva Air’s FAs actually do much more than bowing: they kneel to the level of each passenger to take their meal order or confirm their choice pre-ordered on-line.

A BR A321 only partly hides an EK A380

The latter had already left when we pushed back.

The tarmac was not lit much and there were a few raindrops

A long stop – at least ten minutes without moving and without explanation from the pilots – towards the end of the taxiway, at the level of the maintenance areas. The two aircraft in the shade in the foreground are Eva Air; I had a hard time identifying the logo because it was so dark.

An Eva Air Hello Kitty A321, partially in the hangar, was next to an Austrian Airlines aircraft, obviously ferried there for maintenance only since OS does not serve TPE.

Eva Air 777

ANA 787

Like the Austrian Airlines, this Air Do aircraft is there for maintenance purposes only.

Take-off at 0:12

This fat boy will work all night long

The curtains were then drawn to isolate the two J cabins from the galley, not to close the access.

In a country which receives as much rain as Taiwan does, I can’t understand that you would want to import water from Fiji (it is not a mere brand, the labeling confirms that it was shipped from there).

It was a late dinner, since it was already fifty minutes past midnight, Taiwan time, but it was only close to 6pm, Paris time. It started with this appetizer.

This coffee was a wrong choice by me: not only it was bad, but it also did go along the meal.

The decoration of the center of the tablecloth was more aviation-related than that of the way in, but careful attention reveals hearts and pink bowties.

It is of course a Hello Kitty variation

… matching the cardboard napkin ring

On the other hand, the napkin and the silverware are standard Eva Air business class design: you must travel in Economy to have Hello Kitty plasticware.

No change either in this kit – the two stones in the foreground contain the salt and pepper.

The FAs put on an apron to protect their uniforms during the meal service.
Unlike on the way in, these aprons had frills at the straps

The reason I asked to take this picture was less the bottle and more the apron of the FA with its unescapable Hello Kitty marking. I masked the name (in English and in Chinese) of the FA on her yellow badge.

The trolley was of course covered with a Hello Kitty tablecloth.

The appetizer arrives

I would have gladly bartered this slice of presumed foie gras for its value in shrimps.

There has been some cheating there, because I took a first picture of the partly empty bread basket (which was normal since I was sitting in the last row in J). There was still bread of all varieties, but the FA went to the galley to replenish the basket for a second picture.

This small bowl was really poorly designed for passengers accepting a second piece of bread – the flight attendant has the most difficult part in that she has to place that second piece of bread there with a serving tool only – not touching it with her hand.

Sautéed Seafood with Cardinal Sauce Served with Mixed Vegetables and Creamy Linguine Noodles

I found the sauce "heavy" and I did not like this dish.

I did not like either this desert inspired from a French "fraisier", but then I don’t like the latter either.

An oshibori finished this meal which was less than satisfactory for me, but this was a matter of personal taste only. Furthermore, it was already 1:50 am, Taipei time, when I took this picture, which meant that serving this “light dinner” took a full hour. Actually, I was going back to the typing of my flight report between each dish to not waste excessive time. I acknowledge that this slow motion dinner had the merit of forcing passengers like me to stay awake, which helped resetting the body clock to the destination time zone where it was only 7 pm at the end of this meal.

There was a sequence of turbulences, but the captain took a long time to remember about this signal afterwards. Nobody seemed to care about it once the flight was smooth again, and passengers were moving around without any harassment from the FAs who knew better.

There was an English language copy of National Geographic in the preceding BKK-TPE flight

But in this flight, it’s the Chinese language edition which tells us why wild birds are important.

The supplies in the toilets are the usual kind, when looked from a distance.

They are not quite as usual when looked at from close up

I actually suspect the very serious population of business men and women on this flight of having abused of the Hello Kitty cologne: enough had been sprayed in these toilets to ground any mosquito, which would later receive the regulatory coup de grace by the FAs in the cabins before the descent.

There was also a set of combs, brushes, ear plugs as a complement to the contents of the amenity kits, with a bilingual recommendation to please not waste them.

The miniature cups for teeth brushing purposes are of course branded Hello Kitty

Even the toilet paper meets this aircraft’s graphic standards.

I returned to my seat, and it was time to go to sleep. This was the seat in the bed position, perfectly flat and horizontal, and long enough for me (I am really taller than the robot at the entrance of the lounge ;)

And I slept well: nearly seven hours elapsed between these two pictures. A FA passing by asked me if I wanted to drink something and brought me this glass of orange juice…

… placed on this unescapable Hello Kitty coaster.

We had reached this point in flight, and this is an adequate moment to tell you about Eva Air’s moving map.

This fixed program alternating between a Chinese and an English version, is simply unworthy of the level of quality of Eva Air.

The graphic artists were obviously proud of having modelled the 777 in 3D and show that they could rotate it along the three axes, but I was disappointed to not find a Hello Kitty livery there.

Not only this moving map is more designed to look pretty than to localize you precisely (no a critical issue by night, but a very aggravating one by daytime),

… but there are regularly tourist pictures which hide the location of the aircraft on the screen. When the plane is that far away from 赫爾辛基,

… does it really make sense to display this picture of the cathedral of Helsinki, hiding the location of the plane "somewhere" in Siberia?

There is even some corporate advertising at each cycle. Really, this moving map is arguably the upgrade priority for BR, together with the audio-video offering, and the games too. In short, the only acceptable part of the IFE is the screen itself.
The only interesting point in this moving map is that it exemplifies a geopolitical aspect far removed from Hello Kitty: the air route of this aircraft is not at all the great circle, as shown on these screenshots of Flightradar24 and gcmap (thanks to these websites).

This flight avoids the Chinese airspace (and that of North Korea too, but all flights in this part of the world do) because of the difficult relationships between Mainland China and Taiwan. They had improved significantly when Hu Jintao and Ma Ying-jeou were in power on both sides of the straits of Taiwan, and BR now can now enter Chinese airspace in the south of Yunnan on its flight back to TPE, instead of stopping in BKK on the way as it used to.

But the China-Taiwan relationships degraded now that Xi Jingping and Tsai Ying-wen are in control: XI Jingping steers a much harder line compared to his predecessor, and Tsai Ying-wen is a leader of the DPP, Taiwan’s pro-independence party. China actually tried to “punish” Taiwan by using the tourism income weapon, depending on their city of residence, some Mainlanders are not allowed any more to go to Taiwan by themselves, but only as part of a tour, and this is the case of one of my Chinese friends. What the Chinese media did not tell her (but I did) is that Taiwan redirected its tourism promotional budgets towards South-East Asia and Europe, and fully compensated the decrease of number of visitors from the Mainland. It is probably not pure chance if Air France is opening a CDG-TPE line in April: French visitors will replace Mainland visitors, and I even guess that they will receive a warmer welcome.

A set of tablecloths waiting on a jumpseat

The magazines at the disposal of the passengers

Breakfast started with the arrival of an oshibori.

And coffee which I should have specified to be an Illy espresso if I had wanted it to be good.

The tablecloth and the napkin are the same design as those used for dinner.

As served: Taiwanese Plain Congee with Traditional Delicatessen

The chopsticks are the same as on the flight from CDG, but they are in a Hello Kitty sheath; the toothpick is also in a Hello Kitty wrapping.

Eggs with tomatoes and other vegetables

I don’t like much the sausage made in China and in Taiwan which are always sweetened.

But what really counts is this: congee, i.e. a thick soup of overcooked rice.

With from left to right shredded dried pork meat (a quintessentially Taiwanese ingredient), tofu skin, various boiled vegetables, and pickles

You pour all the above in the congee which becomes both very nutritious and very tasty (if you like this kind of dish, that is).

Last came a plate of fresh fruit

Oolong tea is not my cup of tea, but the Taiwanese are very proud of theirs and I must admit that it is a mistake to keep having coffee in a Taiwanese aircraft: any tea will be better.

A last oshibori

We have begun our descent to Paris…

A last view of the second J cabin, before the curtains are opened.

The FAs are busy tidying the galley

Flying above BRU in the dark

A sweet to help unplug the ears

The IFE screen must be locked in place for landing

Only the destination is now displayed on the moving map

Landing in foggy weather

My seat just before leaving it for good

The passengers in my cabin had already nearly all left. Before deplaning, did you notice that apart from the aircraft’s livery, all Hello Kitty branded items are light accessories which could be replaced easily by any staff without any specific qualification or tooling on the ground? BR has limited the risks to the livery change in case of termination of the contract with Sanrio, the owner of the Hello Kitty trademark.

I hoped that the FAs would have enough rest, because some of their colleagues were demonstrating about this issue in Taipei two weeks earlier.

On the other hand, this guy was going to rest four hours only before heading back home.

We passed along boarding rooms where some passengers were in specific travel clothes.

These were participants to a tour of North Krapistan, a territory with a dubious tourism potential.

The lighting of Terminal 1’s core building

For leaving the satellite, you have the choice between these stairs

… or this long travellator.

Access #1 means that this is the first one you see when leaving the travellator.

It did not mean that you would exit quickly, because there were only two booths handling all passports, no matter if they had been issued by the Fürstentum Liechtenstein or the Народная Республика Юга Крапистана.

Thirteen minutes to be let in, admittedly with a welcome smile by a policeman who did not appear to have any more reluctance toward the honorable citizens of Liechtenstein and South Krapistan waiting before me.

Some late passengers for that day’s flight with Escadron de transport 3/60 Estérel, a highly specialized tour operator.

Tubes and reflections of tubes

Despite the wait at the passport control, I was there just in time to witness the arrival of my first suitcase which made it in an honorable 24’ from the aircraft’s complete stop.

This flight is the one which made me reach the 500 Flight Reports threshold (adding French and English versions), and I take this opportunity to suggest you a retrospective. I can’t really hope that you will read (again) all 500 of them, especially if you need to learn French before, so I made my own English language selection below according to various themes. Your comments and likes will be welcome!
Improbable airports
- LCX, a secret airport
- HTN, an airport in a hostile desert
Some of the best FRs are stories where things go wrong. Let’s start with IRROPS:
- Oman Air sacrifies passengers to save others
- IRROPS on the way in and the way back : the pleasures of LZN and MFK
- Thirteen hours late with China United Airlines
- HCN : an airport served by two weekly flights… and mine is cancelled
- Landing at night in CGQ without my checked luggage
You sometimes come across people who should never be in a plane:
- Like some flight attendants on this HKG-CDG flight
- But sometimes you are the jerk in the airport
Travelling by plane includes looking through the windows
- All the alternate airports west of the CDG-ARN route
- This report is available in French only, but what matters are my best air-to-air pictures when flying to Scandinavia
A nearly empty aircraft is bad news for an airline, but good news for the few passengers on board
- A350 QR
- Dash 8 Uni-Air
There are today’s aircraft here, and yesterday’s aircraft over there
- Mainland China’s one and only Aviation museum, in the outskirts of Beijing, presented in the bonus of this CGO-PEK flight
Who never dreamt of being upgraded to the top?
- Mrs. Marathon travels First Class on (SIN-CDG)
And now, I offer you an optional Taiwanese bonus, of a somewhat special kind.

Contenu masqué : Cliquez pour afficher

We took him with us everywhere, from deep in the Padirac Cave to the roofs of Mont St Michel, from the ramparts of Carcassonne to the ruined Montségur stronghold (below), setting the challenge to wilder levels each time…

Guess where I’m calling you from?

In remembrance of a great friend whom we carried one last time, I propose you a bonus on the accessibility of the Taipei subway and suburban trains for the handicapped.
(The people wear summer clothes in these archives pictures, but I witnessed exactly the same scenes when I was back in Taipei this January. They are really part of daily life.)
The subway system is entirely accessible with lifts which are very convenient for parents with a child in a pram, travelers with heavy suitcases or handicapped users like this one.

He is using a motorized wheelchair (they near all are), and goes directly to the end of the train, where some seats are missing to leave more space for the handicapped, and also for cyclists on week-ends. There is of course a lift at each end of the platform.

The Taiwanese have the discipline of letting passengers leave a subway train before boarding themselves. That is useful, especially when you let a wheelchair passenger leave a train before boarding it on your wheelchair.

This woman wore a mask because being wheelchair bound does not stop here from protecting herself from the sun, like a large number of Taiwanese women. Granted, there is not much sun underground, but it was simpler to keep it while riding the subway.

Taipei’s subway system and its underground shopping malls is so wheelchair friendly that handicapped persons are a very common sight. So much so that there is a specific pictogram recommending them to reduce speed to avoid accidents, because they have a commendable top speed.

They don’t risk running out of electricity because advertising signs remind them that they only need to request help from subway staff to connect their chargers to one of the many power ports at ground level in the corridors.

Taiwan’s domestic electric supply is 110 V AC – a Japanese colonial heritage - but Taipei Metro apparently went as far as taking into consideration foreign visitors, because there are both a 110 V AC and a 220 V AC port.

On the other hand, what blind people need in Taipei and elsewhere is being guided and Taipei goes beyond the ubiquitous tactile pavings. I saw in particular a very didactic sign explaining how to efficiently guide a blind person (met by chance). Other signs recommend asking the station staff for assistance if you are handicapped, or see a handicapped person without assistance.

This blind man has been guided by a subway staff wearing an orange high visibility jacket to this bench at Nanjing East Road station to wait for the next train. It is no chance that there are seats there, because the end of the trains is an easy reference point for handicapped assistance; there is also space on board there for the wheelchair handicapped.

The subway arrives and the staff guides the blind man to a dark blue seat. It is free because in Taipei, no matter if it is rush hour or low traffic time, nobody would sit on a dark blue seat without being elderly/handicapped/pregnant/with a small child. When he leaves, the staff asks the blind man where he is heading to, and once back on the platform, uses his walkie-talkie to tell the control center with the train can depart (it is a driverless line), and that the blind man will leave the train at Zhongxiao Fuxing.

Zhongxiao Fuxing was the next station: the passenger on the left spontaneously guided the blind man to the train door, where two persons were already waiting for him: a subway staff with a walkie-talkie, and a cleaning lady who had obviously been diverted from her usual duties.

Zhongxiao Fuxing is a connecting station between the Wenhu Line and the Bannan Line. The staff with the orange jacket confirmed with his walkie-talkie that the blind man had left the train which can therefore leave the station.

It was a longish walk – exactly five minutes for a guided blind man – with in particular these vertiginous escalators plunging directly from the viaduct’s level down to the underground exchange level of the Bannnan line. Note by the way that nobody was standing on the left, used by passengers walking down (or up) only. Even in rush hour, users who will be motionless on the escalator wait a longish time in line to leave the passage on the left free. But this was a low traffic time, which allowed me to step aside on the left to take this picture, after checking that I was not in anybody’s way.

We reached the exchange level,

… and there was one more escalator down to the platform of the Bannan line.
There too, all passengers were neatly on the right, except me the time I took a picture.

The cleaning lady guides the blind passenger to the end of the platform and is going to wait 1’30" according to the screen overhead the arrival of the next subway.

Another subway staff was already there, with a walkie-talkie too, to hold the subway until he would be seated on board and the cleaning lady had left the train. I did not witness the scene, because I was taking the subway in the reverse direction and I felt I had seen enough.

Granted, Taipei’s subway system and the high speed train line have been built at a time when the problems of accessibility for passengers with reduced mobility, unlike the suburban and main line railways in Taiwan which were built at the time it was a Japanese colony. But it does not stop the Taiwanese from making the latter accessible too, as exemplified by the following scene.
We were at Taipei Central Station, on the narrow platforms of the conventional line. It was Sunday at 17:48, and the omnibus from Su’ao serving all week-end destinations in the north of Taiwan was about enter the station. It had been the only fair weather day of the week, night had fallen half an hour ago… in short, it was the rush hour. What was this railway staff doing with this ramp equipped with small wheels to facilitate moving it around (a neat design, by the way)?

He is waiting for the 17:49 omnibus, now entering in station

He is not alone, because another staff has all waiting passengers move out of the way. There is a third staff inside the jam packed train, against the door.

Many passengers leave the train, but no one is boarding yet,

… because we must let this passenger in a motorized wheelchair out first

…and this other one. They disembark very fast because a Taiwan-made motorized wheel chair is very fast. Never try following one in a corridor if you believe that you only need to walk at a brisk pace.

On the platform where thick pillars are in the way of the continuous flow of passengers, in this station packed with people who cross each other without ever touching each other, the two handicapped travelers each goes in his direction with their respective parties, while the 17:49 omnibus train departs in the direction of Hsinchu.

I have never seen anybody using crutches in Taiwan, although I’ve seen some in a store once. Why use these archaic and poorly ergonomic tools, when it is so much easier and faster to use a motorized wheelchair? When it is rainy, one had handles the joystick and the right hand holds an umbrella. Try doing that with crutches or a conventional wheelchair!
The consequence is that you would not believe the number of people in a wheelchair that I have seen in my daily life there, literally every day. There are probably not more handicapped people in Taiwan than in any developed country, but there, they can go anywhere because all infrastructures are designed or adapted to let them go everywhere.