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Q: Do you drink tap water?
I was at this friend's place yesterday, he showed me how serious the problem of tap water is by examining tap water with some certain equipment. Of course it wasn't pleasant at all. All kinds of metals, chemicals and acids we don't want.....etc etc...
He told me that barrelled water isn't safe either.
How do you deal with the problem? Getting a water filter, purifier? Any brand to recommend? how much it costs?
10 years 23 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
We don't drink tap water. I certainly have doubts as to the safety of the barreled water. I was thinking to get a water purifier, the return on investment is not very fast but hey, maybe one would not be alive for long enough to reach that point.
It is a serious problem that the "old wives" advice to boil water has sunk so deep into the minds of the people, that they don't know it only kills bacteria and that it doesn't help with other pollutants.
I avoid it at all costs. Typically just drink bottled water (not the big barreled stuff). But you can guess where your favorite local noodle or hun tun shop sources their water from....
Sarsaparilla:
Bottled water isn't safe, either........ picture this, loads of bottles delivered by trucks under 40 degree sunlight, who knows what will be melted into the water from the plastic/PE bottles....
I've been making my morning coffee outta it. Everything I eat has been cooked in it. Maybe that just adds to my headaches/brain damage.
I also cook with it, make coffee/tea with it. but I NEVER drink it without boiling it first. A roommate of mine drank a lot of it once when he was really desperate (hungover) and nothing happened. But it's definitely not clean.
Drinking tap water..... HELL NO !!!
I don't even drink the tap water back home either. This is my process: take the water from the barrel (large bottled water) and put it through my special filter i brought from Australia, then boil it like no tomorrow. Then is reasonably safe to drink haha 
Directly: No
Indirectly: Yes
If u eat outside here, you eat/drink tap water. I gotta lol, but you don't imagine that luncheon soup is made with c'est bon do u?
If u got the buckaroo's u might try a high-end home water purification apparatus. I just get screwd spending about 10 kuai a day on botttled aqua.
Only after sanctification - 3 cardinals and a virgin.
when you eat out, you always inadvertently drink/eat it. the wash the vegetables and stuff in it..
when you eat out, you always inadvertently drink/eat it. the wash the vegetables and stuff in it..
I would say avoid it. And not because it could make you sick soon (that is of course a possibility though) but because of metal build up in your body. Even if you boil it there are still metals in the water. I've had a couple of friends who drank tap water all the time - ended up with kidney stones. Now I'm not saying everyone will but It is surely a possibility and having had them myself at one point: You don't want that, believe me, you just don't.
cooter:
Kidney stones are definitely the suck, especially when they're too big to pass and require surgical removal 
. I actually got one from drinking tap water in the US though. The area where I live is notorious for lots of limestone (calcium carbonate), which then of course loves to filter out and accumulate in the kidneys. I had already made the switch to drinking only bottled water before I came to China. I feel the dangers of drinking tap water in China are definitely tilted more to the potential long-term/carcinogenic effects.
No, I don't drink tap water. I wash fruits and veggies with tap water, but I use bottled water for drinking and cooking.
Despite that, I don't think, I'll live any longer because......
I have a water dispenser with a 3 filter system then I boil it.
