去药店买药

Last night I came down with a bit of a cold. My throat hurt, and my head felt a little dizzy.

But I did not go to the hospital. I went downstairs, walked three minutes, and came back with the medicine.

I am Xiao Yue, and I run a tiny dessert shop in Hangzhou. Today let us talk about Chinese pharmacies.

In China there really are a lot of pharmacies. In a lot of cities, finding a pharmacy is easier than finding a good noodle place.

The street below my building is not long at all, but it has three pharmacies.

When you are walking down the street and you see a green cross, that is a pharmacy.

This part is really convenient. It does not matter if you cannot read Chinese characters. Just find that green cross and walk in.

That green light stays on at night too. Some pharmacies are open until eleven, and some are open twenty-four hours.

If a child has a fever in the middle of the night and a parent runs out, they will definitely be able to buy fever medicine.

A lot of foreign friends walking into a Chinese pharmacy for the first time all ask the same question.

Can you buy medicine without a note from a doctor?

For most everyday medicine, yes. Cold medicine, fever medicine, cough medicine, bandages, you walk in and you can buy them.

That note the doctor writes, we call it a prescription.

Medicine you can only buy with one is called prescription medicine. Medicine you do not need one for is called over-the-counter medicine.

Most of the medicine in a pharmacy needs no prescription.

All right, now let us go in and take a look.

The moment the door opens, the assistant will come over and ask you one thing first. Hello, what is wrong?

What she is asking with that line is where you feel unwell.

So the first thing you need to learn is how to say your problem clearly.

I have a cold. My head hurts. My throat hurts. My stomach hurts. I have a cough.

These lines are all short, but they are extremely useful.

A few more are also very common. I have diarrhea. I am not sleeping well. I cut my hand.

If you think you have a fever, just say I might have a fever.

And there are three characters that are more useful than anything else. They are bu shu fu, meaning unwell.

If you cannot say where it hurts, just say I do not feel well. The assistant will ask you question by question.

Yesterday I walked in, pointed at my own throat and said I have a cold and my throat hurts.

The assistant asked me, how many days has it been? Do you have a fever?

I said two days, and no fever.

A lot of Chinese pharmacy assistants have really studied medicine, so they ask in detail. You just answer what they ask.

Then she asked a very Chinese question. Do you want Chinese medicine or Western medicine?

This is where Chinese pharmacies differ most from other countries.

Inside one small pharmacy, one side is often Western medicine and the other side is Chinese medicine.

Western medicine means pills and capsules, and it works fairly fast.

Of course Chinese people take Western medicine too. When they have a fever or a headache, many people take a Western pill first because it works faster.

Some Chinese medicine comes in little sachets. You pour one into a cup, mix it with hot water, and drink it down.

It tastes a little bitter and a little sweet. A lot of people grew up drinking this.

When I have a cold I usually buy Chinese medicine. It works more slowly, but it feels good to drink.

The assistant handed me two boxes, and as she handed them over she told me how to take them.

She said three times a day, one sachet each time, after meals.

This is a phrase you really need to be able to hear. How many times a day, how many pills each time, before or after meals.

If you did not catch it, that is fine. You can say could you write it down?

She will write it clearly on the box, and you just follow it at home.

Under that green cross is actually more than just a place that sells medicine.

Many pharmacies have a blood pressure machine sitting there. Sit down and check yours, and it costs nothing.

Face masks, bandages, thermometers, hot water bottles, you can buy all of them here too.

So we often say, if something is missing at home, go down to the pharmacy and look there first.

Most Chinese people pay for medicine with a health insurance card.

If you do not have one that is fine. One scan with your phone and it is paid, as easy as buying vegetables.

A box of cold medicine is usually ten to thirty something yuan, which is not expensive.

But there is one thing I really have to make clear.

A pharmacy cannot replace a doctor.

With some medicine, no matter what you say, the assistant will not sell it to you. A doctor has to prescribe it. That is not to make life hard for you. It is to help you.

The year I first opened my shop, I had a fever one time. I went to the pharmacy and bought medicine myself, and kept making cakes while running a temperature.

I took it for three days and did not get better at all. In the end I still went to the hospital.

The doctor took a look and said one thing. If you had come two days earlier, you would not need an injection.

That day I sat in the hospital getting my injection, thinking the whole time, I should have come sooner.

So if your fever is high, if the pain is bad, or if you have taken medicine for two or three days and are still not better, stop toughing it out on your own.

These days I keep a little medicine box at home with cold medicine, bandages and a thermometer in it.

I hardly use it, but seeing it when I open the drawer makes me feel a bit safer.

Last night I locked up the shop, and on the way home that green cross was still lit.

No matter how late it is, that light is there. When a person is not feeling well, just seeing it makes you feel a little calmer.