Chinese Herbs...

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

Surely it comes as no surprise to most, that finding American over-the-counter medications in China can be challenging at best. You don't have to walk too far to find a restaurant, and you also don't have to walk too far to find a Chinese drug store.

 

Inside these drug stores you will find a wide variety of herbal remedies for what ails you. Recently, Lan, Sarah, and I took turns with a pretty nasty cold. Fortunately, I brought several medications with me to China, before leaving the US. Sure, you can find things like anti-histamines, ibuprophen, and aspirin, but you have to know what to ask for, and where to look.

 

The world of Chinese medicine is rather new to me, and as a skeptic, I'm not the most trusting person on earth. So, when it came time to go look around in the Chinese drug store, I was completely in the hands of my wife, and the several very young and helpful drug store clerks. Naturally, everything on all boxes is written in Chinese, but if you squint real hard, you might find some English markings, and drugs on the boxes and literature. We bought some sort of herbal cough syrup, that was supposed to relieve congestion, and quiet coughs. After being encouraged by my wife, I chugged some of it down. It didn't taste half bad, but when it came to relieving congestion and cough, I would have been better off with honey and lemon. Course, finding real honey is near impossible also.

 

When you're accustomed to the typical American drug store, with it's endless rows of shelves dedicated to everything that ails you, and then attempt to find simple things that we took as common place, like benedryl; it does indeed take some getting used to. My wife encourages me to just trust her. I'm trying though, and making sure I stay away from milk without a little scotch mixed in....

 

[chilton747]

I had a very similar experience. I was wanting Benadryl for a sinus infection and we went to one of the many drug stores there and I found a box that said diphenhydramine but my wife would not let me have it. She says it is not the same as USA medicine and it would hurt me.

I too chugged down some stuff she bought for me there and all it did was make me irritable.