Before I begin I must make a note, if you’re only traveling for a short amount of time, if you follow this advice you’ll return home with great stories of the bathroom’s wallpaper and interesting tile design.
With that said, not everything you touch is out to kill you. If the natives are doing it, then so can you. However, there’s a reason the natives can do it, they’re natives. Don’t go around thinking that the first day off the plane you can live like a native and eat and drink everything in sight. The key to transitioning is baby steps. I’m still somewhat hesitant about the water situation but so are a decent amount of natives. This doesn’t mean however that I bathe and brush my teeth with bottled water, that’s a little too over the top. As far as food goes, I believe this is self explanatory but use your gut feeling on where to eat. Hopefully, that gut feeling isn’t telling you to go to McDonalds or Starbucks but if it is, it probably didn’t tell you to go to China in the first place.
Of course there is the fact that you’re most likely going to get sick since you’ve never been introduced to the bacteria that call foreign lands their home. Luckily, modern medicine has a solution for you. Another great fact is that the human body is amazing and within a week or two you should be over most of the bacteria declaring war on your body. At this it’s time to relax and enjoy the new land and enjoy it to its fullest.
