I find the idea of the average healthy person taking prophylactic stomach stuff for a trip to China, especially one that is primarily city-based, is over-the-top. Common sense in what you eat and drink is a far better strategy and you don't have to lapse into paranoia to practice it. The best vaccination one can get for possible food/drink contamination in China is Hepatitis A, which is quite prevalent.

No, as it is vaccine, you can't just go to a pharmacy and buy it.

As most "tummy upsets" are caused by ETEC, you rather opt for a Cholera vac Dukoral instead of the very much less prevalent Hep A. However, Hep A is certainly a more annoying "incident" than ETEC.

Ask your GP; however, make sure at least knows where China is located on a map; better ask somebody specialised in this area.

For anyone not going off the beaten track, it's just useless to invent any time and money in getting any of this stuff, since you'll most likely won't catch any of it anyways. Purely paranoia, I agree, jiejie.

not paranoid, just vigilant
 

Not paranoia, past experience. My husband and I have both gotten food poisoning and stomach upset in many countries I've traveled to including Laos, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Spain, Peru, Greece, Monaco, in recent memory, and on cruise ships. And it wasn't from eating at dirty small local restaurants or street food. I am used to eating a lot of ethnic food, especially Asian. I'm very healthy but know that I always get some sort of tummy trouble at least once on a trip no matter where I go.

I've had the hep A vaccination and will carry Cipro with me. I figured if Dukoral was easily available, I'd take it too since it wouldn't hurt me to have it in my system in case I need it.

I'm in Canada where it can be prescribed.

We go to an excellent travel doctor that mentioned while it may not be needed, athletes did take it prior to the Beijing olympics and it is considered a viable way to help prevent travelers Diarrhea.

Seems to me if I'm spending time in another country I'd like to have the greatest opportunity to enjoy it from places other than a toilet.

Preventative medicine.

We have used it on our other trips to places where food standards are not as high as in the western world.

I'm aware it is a vaccine, but I think you misunderstood my use of the term "general public." Dukoral is not normally available in the USA, as it has not been approved as a vaccine for general use. Only under special circumstances by request can it be procured (i.e. international aid workers heading to an epidemic situation such as Haiti).

Interesting. I don't have a cast-iron stomach (in fact, quite the opposite since I have non-food-related gastro issues) and have never gotten ill anywhere except once in the USA (hot food, contaminated by service worker). It's not luck, it's just having a good feel (gut feel, pardon the pun) for what to put in my mouth and what to forego. Sometimes that means avoiding some tasty-looking options, on a very few occasions when traveling I've gone essentially food-less for a day when there was simply nothing safe around, or dipped into emergency rations carried with me for that purpose. And for me, putting a bunch of extra medication "just in case" into my system is a bad idea. YMMV, but perhaps you simply aren't as careful with your eating/drinking habits as you believe. 5* hotel restaurants are no guarantee and in some cases even more suspect than fresh-cooked-in-front-of-you street food.

I appreciate that, but etec is only one cause of traveller's diarrhea. And the primary (my words in post above) intended use of dukoral is for cholera.

tb

How can one 'swear by' a product that has only prophylactic effects? One can 'swear by' using ibuprofen for heachaches, or 'swear by' one brand of toothepaste tasting better than another brand. These are subjective assessments, but entirely valid. However, since the benefits of said vaccine are to prevent something happening, one can't tell (with one anecdotal episode) whether said event (in this case diarrhea) not happening was due to the dukoral or due to not being exposed. Hence need for good randomised trials -- which do indeed show some efficacy.

I'm not advocating against use of dukoral, rather I was objecting to its purported magical properties, and hence my initial statement about its perceived psychological properties. If one thinks that by taking dukoral, one can eat something that one would otherwise not eat, that is very, very poor judgement imo (and I am an infectious disease physician).

I'm a fan of vaccines, and advocate their use, but one should know how effective any one product is: it's not a license to be careless. Just for information, dukoral is c. 42% effective, and for every 6 people treated in a high risk setting (of which beijing is not one, rather e.g. rural africa) it would prevent one episode of diarrhea.

tb

^ All this. What I was trying to point out, but not as clearly as you put it.

Mushrooms
 

Looks like I'm replying to a very old post, apologies for that, but will continue in case the subject is of continuing interest. I'm writing from Kunming (Yunnan) where I live about half of each year.

Wild mushroom season is now in full swing here; it begins after the late spring/early summer rains come. People living in nearby foothills harvest them and bring them to market here. Delicious, fresh and cheap. I have feasted on them twice already this week.

One can get sick if they are misidentified or cooked incorrectly, but the hazard can be minimized by exercising care and is worth the reward in my estimation. They can be enjoyed in local restaurants sautéed with a little garlic and mildly spicy green peppers. They can also be had boiled "hot pot" fashion at the table.

They are quite a seasonal treat. Also, there's no significant risk, so far as I'm aware, attached to eating the many cultivated varieties available fresh or dried year round.

Very true, Chinese like food piping hot. Keep in mind most risk isn't the food, but utensils and plates/bowls.

I think one can never be too prepared. I always carry Cipro if traveling outside US/Canada along with my Immodium pills. But in all my travels have never had to use them.

Keep in mind most stomach illnesses are due to the traveler not being used to local food, not due to bad food.

How about recycled oil and that kind of drudge? That is what really concerns me. One can usually find the disposable (wooden) chopsticks in many places and there is plenty of hot pood to have which takes care of that issue.

However, (and I think this is more of a concern in Shanghai) the use of recycled oil and other stuff has not only scared people but is apparently widely practiced at lower and middle restaurants that have not really raised their prices in accordance with the rising prices of inputs. Although anecdotal a number of my friends who live in Shanghai have reported more upset stomachs etc following meals.

I know that I personally had a dish with recycled oil last year in Shanghai at a relatively decent restaurant. Now my palette when it comes to Chinese food is nowhere near good enough to tell, but several of my friends sent the dish back with complaints.

Dish should go back, with complaints, not replaced, and removed from the bill. If the kitchen uses recycled oil on one of your dishes, I guarantee you they're using it on other dishes if they think they can get away with it, so anything further coming out of the kitchen is suspect. It's easier to detect recycled oil in some dishes than in others, and if the restaurant staff mixes recycled in with new, can be hard to discover just by taste.

I guess if you are that worried and in a lower-end restaurant, you could swing the odds in your favor by sticking with steamed or stewed kinds of dishes and avoid stir-fried and especially deep-fried items.

what to sya when sending food back
 

If I get something served to me that just doesn't taste right, like it is spoiled or made with recycled oil, what do I say to send it back? What is a simple phrase to use? Would "bu hao" work?

Yes.. or a "bu hao chi" (last work pronounced "chuh" - say it fast) and then body language (as in handing the waiter/waitress the plate to send it back). and then "bu zai mai dan" ( "my dahn") or not on the bill.

Susie the one thing I cannot stress to you and others here who do not speak Chinese is this:

DO NOT be afraid to use body language and play charades if you do not know what to say in Chinese. It's no big deal. The odd person might snicker and people might giggle (the latter is usually good). Things get done much faster with much less effort and there is much less furstration. So you can be on your merry way to enjoy the delights of China (or whatever other country).

I think I have posted this story here on FT before, but I will do it again.

My first time in China, probably my first two weeks in the country (I had not taken Chinese classes before and could not express myself in the language in any real way), a few of us went shopping before some short trip. Having been to India numerous times as a kid and knowing how bad the bathrooms could be, I decided in a department store that I should get some hand sanitizer. I wandered around and came upon the aisle that had handsoap and three eager attendants ready to suggest a brand. I went up to them, said "ni hao" and then proceeded to do charades/mime washing my hands. I literally pretended to turn a faucet, rinse my hands, I grabbed a bottle of the soap, pretended to push the nozzle, rinse, turned off the faucet and pretended to wipe my hands. Then I immediately waved both hands in front of my chest as to say "I don't want that." Then I raised one index finger as if to say "hold a second." I then grabbed the soap bottle, pretended to push the nozzle, wipe my hands and then I flashed my hands up, as if to say "done."

2 of the 3 attendants got the message immediately and ran off and in less than 15 seconds, came back with about 4 kinds of hand sanitizer. The whole charade took maybe 30 seconds at most (much shorter than it took to write the description!).

So feel free to be creative. It'll make things fun enough, but much more importantly, much much easier and quicker. Do it with a smile and it can work wonders.