Bottled water is always the good choice! Each day sick in bed is a waste of a day that could have been used to practice dancing moves!

Tap water is a big no-no!

FAP you raise an interesting and critical question that requires hands-on research.

Please drink 5 liters of Beijing tap water, without boiling and give us your unbiased report.

We will all be so appreciative.

This is an interesting question as it applies to every city in China. Here in Suzhou, I wouldn't dare drink the tap water either. But to address your fears, there are plenty of articles out there warning you about the health risks of drinking Beijing water. And just before the Olympics, there were a number of warnings advising tourists not to drink the water.

While the water may be bacteria free after boiling, the metals will still be there and these are what are ultimately the most harmful to health. Beijing authorities claim that the water per se is actually clean, but it's the old rusty pipes the water must travel through that ruin the water.

Before you fall for the claims that it's safe, read this article (VPN may be necessary)

Two give two points of view:

1) I know a guy who drank the tap water in Nanning, Guangxi, and was in hospital for 15 days.
2) I know a guy who came to live in Beijing for a year, and after about a month of caution and bottled water, he started drinking the tap water. He did not get sick once during that year.

So you can make your own mind up, although I've still yet to see if this Beijing guy develops some serious illness later on in life as a result of drinking the tap water.

Here is an amusing article on the subject of Chines and water (Source 1)

And Mr Poutine... sorry to say but read article number 5 (Source 2) and you may feel differently about drinking bottled water!

Wouldn't want to take any risks with drinking tap water. You could boil it all you want but there is something about it that makes me feel uneasy.

I especially don't like it when people offer me it. I always tell them no thanks or I should at least

. I've started getting bottled water it's more healthy.

The tap water may not be as bad as the tap water in Mexico but it's not that much better. 

Plus it tastes nasty! Yuck!! 

I drink fresh tested new England aquifer water from a private source that I filter and boil and delude with juice and tea I still feel weird drinking it I have no idea what the rest of you must feel like. Let alone people in china.

Where is the comments about the specific contents of Beijing tap water that were here two weeks ago and strangely deleted without explanation?  There was even links to various articles including this one which I saved. 

http://www.ethiomedia.com/broad/3601.html

I wished I saved the other one with the gross photos. There were even some comments about bottled water and they are also gone. Why are posts being deleted about a very legitimate subject?

Did anyone save the Zimbio article that was here about Beijing Tap Water? If so please repost it. Thanks.

Always better to be safe than sorry.

I've never gotten sick from boiled tap water but that doesn't mean it's healthy for you. I drink bottled water about 95% of the time. Only time I really use tap water is when cooking or making coffee.

Sadly even the bottled water can be risky.  I forget the name of the brand but there was a brand of bottled water that I use to always drink (the price was good) and then it was discovered that brand of bottled water had a lot of nasty chemicals in it. It was bad enough that it was removed from shelves in the larger stores.  Just recently though I've started to see that brand being sold again so I'm not sure if they passed some health requirements or what, but personally I'll never be drinking that brand again.

Makes me wonder though just how clean the other brands of bottled water I drink are.

Also they've discovered that when bottled water (in plastic bottle) is left outside in the sun some of the chemicals from the plastic get into the water. Think about that next time its 100 degrees and you see cases of bottled water just sitting outside in the sun. Heck i see people in China heating up bottled water while its still int he plastic bottle quite often, it's a bit sad to see that they don't know how unhealthy that is.

Boiling water does not get rid of heavy metals nor dioxins - only kills bacteria guys. Bottled water is the safe bet. Don't gamble with your health.