Things to do before you leave for China

[bt1000]

Just thought i would raise this topic for a bit of fun and hopefully new people can learn something from this - so go for your life

Things to do before you leave for China

assuming you have already enrolled and booked your ticket

1 - buy some lollies for the plane - helps with the pressurisation that happens in the plane and it seems to help with blocked ears

2 - bring deoderant - not much choice in China last time I went

3 - don't forget your stationary - easy to forget - although you can buy this over in china, no dramas

i'll leave this open for others and come back and post later

[heifeng]

4)get your vaccinations

5)teeth cleaning

6)buy vitamins and stock up on any medicine you may need

7)buy chocolates or some small foreign things that will go over well with anyone you need to suck up to, although some candy may be called too sweet. gum works better on a plane, but throw some candy in your luggage for fun anyway.

8-If you are big or tall in anyway, bring enough clothing or shoes to last you.

9) Cosmetics or hair dye if you are concerned they may not have your color

10) misc. snack, food items, i.e.microwaveable fat free popcorn, taco seasoning and other seasoning packets

[randall_flagg]

11) high-quality earplugs

[badr]

I'd say it depends on where you're going in China.

I find that since I moved to Beijing, there are very few things that I cannot find here, mainly Vicks Nyquil. Tylenol cold and flu is a decent substitute but it's not the same.

Plenty of deodorant and other cosmetics too.

I'd suggest buying a decent pair of boots and shoes before coming because the quality here sucks unless you like at the high end which is outrageously priced compared to the west.

Good quality earplugs are also hard to come by but then again, you can find them.

Anti-histamines from your local pharmacy to get you through the first few months of pollution and allergies.

everything else can be found pretty darn easily

[etcetera24]

I'll elaborate on the feminine hygiene products end

Pads/ pantyliners are commonly available, tampons less so. You can find the ones without applicators by o.b. quite easily (at least in major cities), but if you use applicator tampons, it's best to stock up and bring them with you.

[Meng Lelan]

Contact lens solution

(you can find this at Carrefours and Watsons but they are still selling Renu which had recalls due to defective products a few months ago)

Contacts case, spare glasses.

[bianfuxia]

If you're a coffee fiend, maybe bring a small plunger (french press) and one or two bags of your favourite kind of coffee.

You can buy it here, but it is more expensive than at home, and the french press can be pricey too, and hard to find. I ended up getting one at Ikea for 100 rmb which would have cost half that at home. Or even better bring one of those Italian stove-top espresso things (where you put water in the bottom and coffee comes out the top).

Coffee seems to cost about twice what it does in Australia.

If you're on a tight budget like me you will save alot by getting most of your addiction dealt with at home!

For example, at the Lotus center in Wudaokou, a bag (250gms) of coffee costs maybe 40-60 kuai depending on the brand. You should get at least 20 cups from that, I suppose.

Drink that in the morning instead of paying anything from 5 kuai a cup at the BLCU library cafe to 25-30 a cup at Sculpting in Time or Starbucks (yuk anyway).

Heaps cheaper, and probably nicer. All the above assumes you hate instant coffee...

[mr.stinky]

mr.coffee type machines run about 200.

plunger type at wally world for 20.

italian stove top type is 200 or so.

local yunnan brand "sonlight gourmet coffee" (with u.s.a. advanced technigh)

is 16.50 per 250g. yes, you can also buy beans.

freeze-dried sanka is also available for the philistines.

attached is a scan of the coffee package, note the native american, cause i suppose

coffee was the traditional beverage of tribal elders. available at paul's shop near

yunda, along with another dozen or so various coffees and expressos and cappucinos.

[bianfuxia]

does anyone know where to get the yunnan brand coffee in Beijing? I've never found it.

[badr]

jenny Lu's

April gourmet

He Ping ( behind 3.3)

those stores all carry a decent selection of local Yunnan coffee priced from 14RMB a pack to 40

[djwebb2004]

If I were you, I would bring a stock of diarrhoea medicine. If you are planning to eat out, you will definitely need it on a regular basis. And the local diarrhoea medicines are based on the principle of making you go to the toilet every 10 minutes for several days rather than actually arresting the symptoms...

[Yang Rui]

Well i've found the medicine 盐酸小檗碱片 (berberine hydrochloride tablets) works wonders whenever i get diarrhoea. It just seems to calm everything down nicely. Last time i bought it, a bottle of a hundred cost 7 kuai - what a bargain.

[liuzhou]

If I were you, I would bring a stock of diarrhoea medicine. If you are planning to eat out, you will definitely need it on a regular basis.

You must be going to some very bad restaurants. I eat out nearly all the time and have only had to buy "diarrhoea medicine" once in ten years. And that was after eating at a western restaurant!

[Jive Turkey]

Bring 50 to 100 tablets of a broad spectrum antibiotic. Make sure the expiration is as far in the future as you can get. 500 mg amoxicillin or augmentin (500 mg amoxicillin plus 125+mg of clavulanic acid) would be a good choice.

I simply do not trust the anti-biotics sold on the mainland. Much of what is on the shelves is either straight up fake, poorly made or the dosage is lower than what is claimed on the lable. I have had friends who had a very difficult time getting over fairly simple bacterial infections because the antibiotics dispensed to them from mainland chemists were likely fake or not to spec. Bring your own supply and download the dosage instructions from the manufacturers website. Do not take them unless you have a persistant high fever. If you are truly in a bind and a mainland doctor prescribes a more specific antibiotic, try as best as you can to have someone get or send it from outside of the mainland. Taiwan, HK, Korea and Japan are all fine. I wouldnt' trust any antibiotic sold on the mainland, even if the lable says it's from outside of China, unless it was dispensed from a military hospital pharmacy.

I am not a doctor. This is not professional medical advice.

[bt1000]

Bringing antibiotics sounds like a good idea, but what sort of issues are you going to face with customs in China (who don't really speak English) and customs of other stopover countries. The travel doctors I went to see told me not to remove anything out of the "travel doctor kit" they sold me (included various drugs for stomach issues, fever, etc) because without being in a packaged kit, it could cause some troubles with customs

On other things, a good thing to invest in before you leave for China should be a English-Chinese dictionary. If you can wait, its cheaper to buy in China, but its better to have once you get off the plane. Also, I've found that when buying books, smaller bookstores seem to give you a discount on the RRP, but big bookstores such as Xinhua make you pay the RRP labelled on the book. I never found out why, but it did make me want to support the smaller business more than hte big chains, despite having a smaller range of books.

[Jive Turkey]

My bags have never been inspected when crossing at Luohu into Shenzhen, but it might be a bit different at an airport. I seriously doubt they would care just as long as you aren't carrying in loose pills. If they're in a package, then it shouldn't be a problem. Customs at any major airport will have someone who generally knows what is what for common medicines. They know what basic antibiotics like amoxicillin are.