I always use 90*C cycle on my washing machine ... for all fruits. Sometimes apples and pears come out in different colour ...

I dont think it matters really. Once you see the water used to irrigate the crop while it is in the ground, what comes out of your tap is the least of your worries.

A thing to research is arsenic in your area. Large areas of China has poisoned land because of over extraction of water and natural occurance of arsenic. All to do with water table, evaporation and capillary action. Fascinating stuff to look into.

Do like Kramer did.

This is a legitimate question about living in China, and it’s something that many foreigners are concerned about, so it merits a considerate response.  Here’s my thinking on the issue.

I simply assume fruits and vegetables are grown in China on land and with water that are contaminated with pollutants and toxins.  But I think larger commercial enterprises have more to lose if they don’t try to curtail the amounts of contaminants in our foods.  So I buy most of my fresh food from a large box international retailer, like Auchan and Carrefour.  I believe they have better food safety protocols in place to protect their public images and bottom lines.  I also believe the local village farmers selling on the streets are not very concerned about the pollutants in their products, and they will use whatever land and water resources are the easiest and cheapest to come by.  Do I have scientific evidence to support my assumptions?  No.  But at some point I have to simply make a choice of what to eat or not eat, and get on with my other daily activities.  Even if something is branded as organic or natural or whatever, I believe I have no reasonable assurances that food is any less tainted than other food sold in the big box stores.  If I lived in a small village and I didn't have access to a big box store, I may view this differently.

As to the water we use in our homes, this is how I handle it.  First, I use my nose.  If I can smell chlorine from the tap water, then I am not concerned about bacterial contaminants.  (I do the same when I’m using tap water in hotels.)  If the water is chlorinated, then there’s no reason to boil it.  Chlorination will kill the microorganisms just as easy as boiling, but boiling won’t remove the heavy metals and other toxins.  I can smell the chlorine in my tap water, so I never have to boil it.

The science and engineering of building a water purification plant is not rocket science.  But what I discovered is that if I fill a big white bowl with the water and let it sit overnight, I will often find there is visible sediment in the bowl the next day.  So I’ve come to realize that the water pipes have been compromised somewhere between the water purification plant and my home, whether by faulty initial construction, geologic shifts, or intervening building construction.

You can safely drink the chlorinated tap water on a short-term basis, but over the long run it’s probably not a good idea to allow toxins and heavy metals to build up in our bodies on a daily basis, not if we can take reasonable steps to prevent that from happening.

Here are my guidelines:

1.  I use bottled water for drinking water and making coffee.

2.  I use tap water to rinse off my fruits and vegetables, mostly to remove any dirt and microorganisms on the surfaces that accumulated from shipping and handling.  Given the hygiene habits of the locals, I prefer to eat produce without any sneeze residue.  I could be hypersensitive about this, but I believe the big box retailers have already cleaned most of the dirt and critters off the produce before it gets to the retail environment.  My experiences support this.  So a rinse with tap water is good enough for me.  Using bottled water for this is unnecessary given the chlorination of the tap water.

3.  Sometimes I use bottled water for cooking, and other times I use tap water.  For example, I’ll add bottled water to a sauce, but I’ll use tap water to cook pasta or boil eggs.

4.  The incidental use of tap water to brush my teeth or rinsing my mouth is not a big concern, because I am not consuming much of it on a short-term or long-term basis.

I’ve never been sick at home from food poisoning using these guidelines.  Any food-borne illnesses have come from restaurant or street foods.  I don’t have a fully reliable crystal ball about which places are not safe to eat at, so sometimes caca happens.

I hope this helps.

I wash them with water. 

I use a hot water cooker and then pour the water to cool into a water cooler dispenser and then use it to wash the vegetables. I also bought a water filter system coming into the home that filters the water before it goes to everything including the shower, but they are expensive in China.

Baking soda.  http://theorganicwellness.com/how-to-use-baking-soda-to-wash-off-96-of-all-toxic-pesticides-from-your-fruits-and-vegetables/

We had a family meal tonight in one of those places that has a tv screen connected to a camera in the kitchen. Look how hygenic we are sort of thing.

Yeah right I said as I watched the display of cleanliness. Not all parts of cooking pots are hot.

On the same subject. One of my pet hates here is the piling of dishes upon each other on the table. For one thing, the underside of plates are seldom washed properly, and for another, serving trays are never washed.

You just cant avoid it here.