On two or three travel blogs on various internet sites about China that I have read, a panicky writer often describes a horror story about some basic hygiene items I think it's necessary to discuss. For example, the stories of no toilet paper (at restaurants for example). While perhaps true in some cases, these truly are simple problems which the 22 year old traveller should have easily overcome.

In most of the smaller communities, say 500,000 to 1 million population, most restaurants provide 'toilet paper' right at your table. Even in larger cities, really inexpensive restaurants practice this as well. It actually is tissue paper sheathed in a round plastic container and fed from the inside-out instead of starting on the outside, as you are probably more accustomed to seeing. This inexpensive 'table tissue' is used by the Chinese just as we use napkins. If you are visiting mid-sized cities, say 1 million to 5 million population (or more middle class restaurants), many  offer a little plastic envelope with several individual pieces of folded facial tissue or napkins. In fact, after living here about a month, I realized it was a good habit to collect these little envelopes of napkins - after all you are paying for them anyway - and carrying a few around with me at all times. Then you are never without some 'toilet tissue' even in an emergency. Don’t forget to take them out of your pockets before sending your clothes to the cleaners or the washing machine.

If you stay in the larger cities - which I hope you don't, most of the really nice restaurants offer a wash cloth sealed in plastic or served hot to you by the hostess before ordering your food. NOTE: This is becoming the practice more and more lately. I think it's a great idea to wash your hands before eating, and so do the Chinese. As you see there is really no need to panic, at the lack of toilet paper….

More importantly, unless you are either really young, from West Virginia, or an 'old China hand', you really don't want to use the restroom in a restaurant anyway….. Speaking of going to the restroom, my primary advice is to go at the hotel where you are staying, before venturing out on a day or shopping trip. Many places only offer what is endearingly called a 'squatty'… In other words you don't sit-down on a commode, you squat over a hole. Sometimes that hole is porcelain and sometimes it is 'just a hole'. So we older folks, whose knees don't hold up under pressure for very long, make a habit of 'going' before 'going out'.

In China, a little prior planning generally works wonders.