It's purified so yes - in fact I tested this out when I started using water from my water cooler to boil - there was a lot less nasty sediment/limescale on the side of the kettle over time, same with my air humidifier. 

There are obviously reports of people who refill bottles with tap water so there's an issue there, though I've heard that if you check the seal of the bottle to see if it's been broken that's usually a giveaway. I'm sure there are more crafty ways though.  

some bottle water has trace minerals added for taste, i find boiled water to have little taste at all, tried boiled water as drinking water after cooling in the fridge and taste is quite different from cold bottled water.

I only drink bottled water. I heard the tap had a lot of heavy metals and other stuff. But for more information, I just looked it up.

http://www.purelivingchina.com/learning-center/water-quality/

haha what ？ don't have high expectations of the conscience dead businessmen ！！ be happy if the bottled water is not worse than boiled tap water lol .

Nongfu spring water denies allegations of worm eggs found in bottles

You might want to put down that bottle of water you're drinking, or at least check the caps, if recent larvae-related allegations are to be believed! A father and son claim that they opened sealed bottles of Nongfu spring water in Tongzhuo, Bejing on Thursday and found worm eggs inside the caps. The boy, who apparently screamed after taking a gulp of water then seeing the eggs, experienced diarrhea and vomiting and was later diagnosed with acute enteritis. Nongfu has responded by releasing the following statement: ""It never happened. The worm eggs were actually on the outside of the bottles, not the inside." The shopkeeper maintains that they opened more bottles and found more eggs, and she refused to return the suspect bottles (which were bottled in Jilin province in June) when Nongfu delivery men came back to pick them up. First it was bacteria in Beijing bottles earlier this month, and now this! Maybe we should just drink imports. Or then again maybe not...
 

http://shanghaiist.com/2011/07/25/nongfu_spring_water_denies_allegati.php

China’s bottled water problem

http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4521-China-s-bottled...

12.09.2011

Concerns about food and drink safety in China show no signs of dying down. In the wake of a series of cases involving lax monitoring and public health problems, the Ministry of Health issued a national warning, pointing out that schools and construction sites were particularly high risk areas. Meanwhile, one area the Chinese press has

paid great attention to is bottled water. 

During August, worm eggs were reportedly found in bottles of Nongfu Spring water in a shop in Beijing and, later that month, safety checks found excessive levels of aerobic bacteria and coli groups in 31 brands of bottled water. Sales were immediately halted by authorities.

In an interview with China Daily, Li Fuxing – director of the Beijing Institute of Public Health and Drinking Water – admitted that regulation and checks for water are difficult and costly to implement. Official efforts are usually only conducted when water production is started, and follow-up checks are rare. The production and supply chains also offer plenty of opportunity for contamination or introduction of counterfeits, with equipment such as piping often dozens of years old and rarely cleaned. This month, water produced by six companies was found to have high levels of bacteria, bromate and strontium. Bromate is a possible carcinogen and, in certain forms, strontium can lead to diseases of the bone such as bone cancer.

Counterfeit water and bottles, which may not be made of the food-grade polycarbonate required by safety standards, can be easily switched with the original product by distributors, many of whom are independent from the production companies. A salesman at the largest producer of polycarbonate water barrels in the market claimed that only 40% of these barrels met the necessary standards.

Efforts have been made to deter counterfeiters by using bottles marked with special patterns, but again these are costly and can only be produced by the largest bottled-water companies. In an industry where customers spend over 30 billion yuan annually and regulation is lax, it may be difficult to convince companies to invest in frequent tests and safety checks for their supply and production chains.

So why not just drink trusted bottled water suppliers instead then?

I've been drinking boiled tap water for a while now and I'm fine. I know this is a stupid comment to make but really, this global paranoia with heavy metals and pipes has been going on forever and it's hard to know which sources are reliable these days. Many studies prove that water is fine once boiled and other people claim it's toxic. The truth is, almost everyone in Beijing drinks boiled water. I know some people with water dispenser machines but they still drink boiled tap water now and then or use tap water when cooking.

There are apparently a lot of known issues with bottled water companies and drinking from a bottle does not necessarily mean that you are drinking better water.

I've tried drinking bottled water for some time when I came to China but sometimes it tastes horrible and let's face it, buying bottles is really annoying to carry back home or when littering. I know you can get water delivered home for rather cheap but still, using bottled water to cook and drink is ridiculous in my opinion... I cook and drink about 4 liters of water everyday and so does my girlfriend; let's hope I don't get poisoned I guess...

This is an impossible question to answer with any degree of certainty. The answer will vary according to various prevailing circumstances. Bottled water may carry unacceptable levels of various contaminants. But the same can be said for the tap water. I pay a relatively high price to buy quality mineral water here. When I say high, the price is 18 yuan per 19 litres as opposed to 6 yuan for standard bottle water. The taste and added assurance it carries makes me happy to pay the extra 12 yuan. As for tap water, I only use it to brush my teeth, wash, do the cleaning etc. I would not use it for drinking or for cooking. That is a personal choice rather than being based on the risks involved. If you favour the consumption of boiled tap water, it may be worth investing in a prefilter. That is to say, filter out any possible physical, chemical or microbial contaminants first (as far as the filter is capable of doing so) then boil for added security.

I purchased a Media water dispenser it as three filters to clean the water then I boil it, a year and the half later I'm still here, during travel I only use bottled water.

To answer your question, NO I don't think it's safer to drink bottled water in China.