I retraced tony's 07 trip to China. Tarry stools in Xian, ?? virus in Lhasa. How do they do it and not get deathly ill?. I finally switched to "Bactrim" daily, and only fried food. Nervous!

I lived in China for eight months as a business expat and only got sick once, really horrible food poisoning but that was just a bit of bad luck while in the country. After not eating for three days, I was fine.

I'd worry more about what I drank rather than what I ate, though. If you stick to bottled water you're fine. In the countryside, I'd stick to cooked rather than raw foods. Fried foods are fine as long as they're not deep fried, since you don't know how long they've been using the oil. Even saying that, I still never had a problem with any kind of cooked food there. I always figured that if the people living there weren't getting sick from the food, why worry about it.

1. Ease into it.

2. Eat citrus and especially the chile--westerners who go to Asia and eat at Pizza Hut and KFC get sick. There's something about chiles that give you prophylaxis against gut bugs. Trust me.

3. Brush teeth with bottled water at the beginning. Keep your mouth closed in the shower.

4. Observe where the locals eat. IF there are 5 street stalls and locals are all eating at two of them, eat at those two. Locals know where fresh and hygenic food is, and where it's not.

5. Don't worry yourself too much. I just got back from 5 months in Asia and only got sick one--in Jakarta, I DId not get sick at rural street food stalls, just a big city restaurant. You can get food poisoning as easily in the US.