I got through the first week with only a few instances of the Chinese "culture" clash with my normal flora, but this week, I was introduced to a Chinese cold or 毛病 (maobing). I didn't realize how conditioned I am to look for labels until I went to the pharmacy to purchase some medicine. Two of the medications in the photo are commonly used in the US and one should be relatively easy to recognize; the Robitussin in the middle. The stuff on the left is Tylenol Cold and the stuff on the right is some herbal expectorant, apparently. The round tube is the Chinese equivalent of Alka-seltzer cold and flu formula. The real trick is to find a pharmacy which carries American drugs and to know exactly what you're looking for. I was after some guaifenesin as I feel like I have soup in my chest and an expectorant would take care of that problem, but I got the box with a green leaf and water on it. No fear, though. If the soup turns into bronchitis, I can just run down to the pharmacy and pick up any variety of antibiotics without a prescription. That's right, you can get just about anything sans prescription here in China, from thousand year old plant fungus to western medicines.
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