Drink Hot Water

Certainly no matter where you are around the world, people will have suggestions to offer on how to cure a cold. In the US, I believe the most common pieces of advice would be drink more, take some type of cold medication, and get as much rest as you can. As many things are different than that of my home country, it’s not surprising that the Chinese have very ‘unusual’ suggestions on how to cure the common cold. The following list is a collection of suggestions which were either given to me or people I know.

1. Drink hot water.
2. Drink hot water with honey in it.
3. Drink hot water with medicine in it.
4. Drink hot water with lemon in it.
5. Drink hot water with salt in it.
6. Drink hot water with tea.
7. Don’t drink hot water.*
8. Don’t drink tea.
9. Drink room temperature water.* (You would have to microwave water to get it to “room temperature,” as the weather here is so cold that room temperature water is actually rather cold.)
10. Drink cold drinks.
11. Don’t drink cold drinks.*
12. Drink juice.
13. Only drink water.
14. Eat meat.
15. Don’t eat meat.
16. Eat spicy foods as long as your stomach feels ok.
17. Don’t eat spicy foods, regardless of how your stomach feels.
18. Take a rest.
19. Eat oranges, but not too many because they give you acne.
20. Eat some vegetables, but not too much eggplant because it makes you skin darker.
21. Make sure to keep the doors of your classroom open to protect against the flu.
22. Go to the hospital where they will most assuredly give you an IV.

* The stared suggestions were offered to one of my students, who was so sick that she was crying in my class. Rather than send her home or let her rest in her office, the nurse (the medical professional employed by the school to assist over 3,000 students) told her these things.

Clearly old wives tales persist in China. It is amazing the number of contradictory suggestions I received this week, most of them dealing with the temperature of my beverages and what should be in them. Several people encouraged me to visit any type of medical professional. And one other person suggested a mystery medication that is put in tea. The rest would just have me drinking some type of fix all drink, though what exactly that is varies. This all leads me to believe that world wide study on the topic of the common cold would be incredibly interesting.