Those of you interested in China’s food industry may want to check out a new paper discussing the current state of China’s retail food sector. The US Foreign Agricultural Service has a great collection of their Global Agricultural Information Network reports (called GAIN Reports). They recently published their new analysis of China’s retail food sector. The …

I read an intriguing post recently on the Global Times about a Greenpeace investigation into China’s foreign-owned supermarket chains. This Greenpeace “Supermarket List for China” ranked the 15 largest supermarkets based on categories such as pesticides and GM foods. The report had Wal-Mart, Tesco, and Ito-Yokado rank at the bottom of the list, while Carrefour, …

I’ve touched a bit on the state of China’s public health care system; now there’s an outstanding 4-part series from China Healthcare Blog discussing the state of rural health care and how it affects the elderly. The main issues center on the lack of adequate health care for most rural Chinese; the elderly, with far more …

It’s a bit, um, difficult to make air pollution a cool subject for kids. Even my recent slide show on air pollution left a few high-schoolers eyes glazed. Fortunately, I spread out a couple fun internet games to perk up the group. Fun and educational! Throw in free and you have an instant hour or …

Smoking is an emormous global issue, not just among expats. As I discussed before, China’s smoking rate is astonishingly high with over 50% of men smoking. The (surprisingly?) excellent national daily newspaper Global Times this week has a good, comprehensive review of the situation, including growing efforts to control smoking by raising cigarette taxes. The major …

The newish Beijing Healthcare Forum announces their next meeting, tomorrow night the 28th at Luce. This next meeting’s speaker will be Prof. William (Bill) Valentino, a recognized expert on sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Here’s the lowdown: Our next Beijing Healthcare Forum will be Thursday, January 28th.  It will continue to be at Luce Restaurant. 今晚(1月07号)会议的地点是Luce餐馆, 从鼓楼大街地铁站往南走300米, which …

I find it fascinating that over 50% of men in China are smokers, while only about 5% of women are. Why such a huge discrepancy? These are massive questions for China’s public health teams: why do so many Chinese men smoke? Or you could ask the reverse questions; why do so few Chinese women smoke, …

There’s an interesting new blog about China healthcare…called, easily enough, China Healthcare Blog. It’s a spinoff of their previous Asia Health Care blog. They have a good group of writers who write original and in-depth articles. One article that caught my eye this week was their mention and ongoing video discussion of a disturbing paper …

We all sense that China’s current economic frenzy has led to many people — expats as well as locals — to work extremely long hours and face huge amounts of stress in their jobs. Well, it’s no secret that stress, poor sleep and poor diets can adversely affect your health, but a disturbing new report …

Today is World AIDS Day, and local newspapers are providing good information online today. The Global Times has a nice series of articles reviewing the situation in China (Global Times – A nation of ghost whispers.) The gist of the story centers on the stigma attached to HIV positive people here, and the strong discrimination …

Two weeks ago, the open-invite  Beijing Healthcare Forum had its most successful night yet, as over 40 people enjoyed the Q&A session by United Family Hospital CEO Roberta Lipson. The BHF’s next meeting is this Tuesday, December 1, in honor of World AIDS day. 我们的下一次会议将给世界艾滋病日以荣誉. World AIDS day is dedicated to raising awareness of the …

I’ve mentioned before that there is a new Beijing Healthcare Forum which meets bimonthly at Luce. Here’s our description from the Google group website: We are a group of academics and professionals engaged in projects and enterprises related to health care services.  Our goal is to better inform ourselves and others about emerging trends in …