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Friday, June 3, 2011

NyQuil, China Style

[UPDATE below]

I had a bit of a cold for a few days and I very much needed a good night's sleep.  I probably would have headed to a store and picked up some NyQuil if I were in the US.

However, in Chengdu, Sichuan province NyQuil was not an option so I realized some East meets West ingenuity may be in order.

So first, I picked up a box of this:

side of Tylenol Cold medicine box with Chinese writing

If you're not sure what that is, let me flip the box over:

side of Tylenol Cold medicine box with English writing

But some Tylenol Cold medicine on its own certainly wasn't equal to a good dose of NyQuil without a special key ingredient.  So, I added that ingredient by washing down the medicine with some of this:

bottle of baijiu
90 proof Baijiu

Baijiu is a very common distilled liquor in China and there are a wide range of qualities.  The above bottle set me back about 10 yuan (about US $1.50).

The verdict of this new combo?

Well, based on my single test run it had a bit more of a kick to it than NyQuil but it served its purpose well.  I had a very good night's sleep.

Maybe this is why I've never seen NyQuil in China.

[UPDATE: A reader kindly recommended against mixing alcohol and Tylenol.  I had unwisely assumed that if NyQuil could mix cold medication and alcohol that other mixes would be fine as well.  After checking herehere, and here I realized it isn't that simple.  Under certain conditions mixing Tylenol and alcohol could have very negative consequences.  Fortunately, given my health, infrequent drinking, and the low dosage of Tylenol I was very unlikely to have a problem.  See the previous links for more information.  I hereby add the warning: I do not recommend trying this at home (or elsewhere).]

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