Travel tip # 4: Bug spray.
Lets play the “if you’re stranded on a desert island game” for a minute. Only, you’re not on a desert island. You’re in a “small” Chinese city of roughly 7 million people. What are your necessities? Hand sanitizer (I have the spray kind, the hand wipe kind, and the squirt bottle kind, and I’ve made good friends with all three), little tissue packs (which serve as toilet paper, tissues, and napkins, all rarities in public places), and bug spray! That third one seems to get neglected a lot. But if you come to southern China and you don’t bring your bug spray (bad idea), or don't use it (even worse), you may end up like me with four bug bites on my left foot and two on my right, plaguing me as I walk around, never mind the countless red polka-dots decorating the rest of my body. If you choose to go my brainless route of not wearing bug spray, do yourself a favor and at least have a tube of Cortisone cream or the like for the aftermath. I’m telling you, people, these are not the mosquitoes we’re used to dealing with. They don’t buzz around near your ear and annoy you that way. You don’t even tend to feel them when they strike. This is a silent but deadly operation they run, so come ready to fight back.