Be Careful Where You Eat

The low number reflects the lack of inspectors, not the presence of any hygienic restaurants.

Health officials uncovered more than 40,000 violations of hygiene and license regulations in China's catering sector from January to October, according to the Ministry of Health.

"Health departments at all levels inspected more than 920,000 catering units and fined violators 23 million yuan (three million U.S. dollars)," the ministry reported in a teleconference on catering safety on Friday.

Last year, health departments uncovered more than 110,000 violations, revoking 1,444 food hygiene licenses and cracking down on almost 30,000 unlicensed businesses, according to ministry statistics.

"The number of food poisoning cases and the incidence of infectious diseases of the intestinal tract had declined compared with the same period of last year," it said.

Only 73 percent of the country's restaurants and other catering units routinely checked suppliers' hygiene certificates when buying raw materials, it said.

I can promise you with 100% certainty, that there are less than 50 restaurants in China (all of them western) that you'd be willing to eat at if you saw their kitchens. I know the same can be said in the US in many places, but this is a whole new level of "you've got to be kidding me."

There are many vendors that sell food on the corner. On any given rainy day, you can see cars drive by and splash the sludge on the street (spit, snot, urine, pollution and everything else) onto the carts serving the food. No one blinks.