@crazy.laowai: Not meaning to press into your health issue here, but is your lung condition a preexisting one before you arrive in Beijing or does it have something to do with the air in Beijing? Coughing out phlegm and black stuff is one thing(happened to me lots in India and Pakistan), but a hole in a lung is yet an entirely different matter.

Bradlevine: I never had lungs problems before. I do not smoke, and I am generally in good health. I think what happened is that I caught bacterial pneumonia in Beijing from someone, and also the severe pollution added to it. I had a high fever and was in great pain, so I went to the hospital. They did a CT scan and found that my left lung was not only full of congestion and inflammation, but it also had a hole in it. I stayed in the hospital for a month, receiving IV antibiotics.

@ Alex,

Yes not much in the way of pollution in Chenggong.

Not much of anything.

Btw compared to its sister sister in the USA - Denver, the air the same, thin (high altitude) smog trapped by the mountains/front range.
But compared to LA it's wonderful here.

@crazy.laowai: Thanks for the reply. My ex caught pneumonia a few years ago and it was nasty, keeping my fingers crossed I never get something severe here. Glad to hear you're better and also glad to know that Kunming pollution is much better(is there such a thing, better pollution?) than class 1 cities.d

@tigertiger: what do you mean by fresh foods not being safe here? I know about the fake eggs and all that, but other fresh produce should be ok, right?

WOW!!! Crazy,
That was a bad pneumonia, coupled with a spontaneous pneumothorax, nasty...glad your better now.

@ Badlevine, ask yourself why Chinese wash and cook everything they eat.

Their not big on Salad's.

@bradlevine, where do we begin?

Off the top of my head.

Much fresh fruit and veg is treated with chemical pesticides and other chemicals to enhance the product.
Pesticides may be used right up to harvest. Be especially careful with carrot, always peel as the skin is very good at absorbing chemicals.
I think I read last week that farmers were spraying crops with formaldehyde to prolong freshness at market, and these are the little farmers.
Some farmers still use human sewage as fertilizer with carries a risk of e-coli.
The veg is washed before it gets to market. This is often not in clean water, but in local gullies and streams. Even the water they spray on at the market may not be from a tap. If it is from a tap is the water drinking water?

Beyond fresh produce, there is more of the kinds of foods you buy in the wet markets that have been affected.

Fake rice.

Fish.

Turbot that was treated with too much fish fungicide to be safe, even for China.

There is a popular yellow belly fish of high value. Other species were having the belly colored yellow with industrial dye.

Meat -

Fake beef, made from other meats by treating with chemicals. In one case duck was treated with urine to make it like beef.
There was also a case where condemed pork was then treated and frozen to be sold as that thin sliced lamb that goes in hot-pot. This was also sold on to muslim meat vendors without their knowledge.

My family chooses to buy produce from places like Metro instead of street markets, for the reasons quoted above. Although they cost more, larger stores sell fruit, vegetables, eggs etc labeled as 'green' or organic. Of course some cyncism in exactly how organic they are is justified. To be even safer, it would be worth looking into those selling organic produce direct from the farmers who use safe practices.

Domestic Milk has been revealed to the world not to be trustworthy, so we pay the extra for imported milk.

There are no absolute guarantees, but we can take certain measures to at least be a little more healthy.

I recommend using an ozone generator (臭氧机)to clean your fruit and vegetables, and even meat. They can be ordered on Taobao, or maybe also found here in the city- I think the wicker basket used to sell them at one point, not sure if they still do.

Ozone kills more harmful bacteria than chlorine, also removes most pesticide residue and other harmful things... we have been using it for several years and enjoying lots of fresh fruits and veggies.

here are a couple research links to start with, there is lots more out there-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone
www.oxygenie.com/ozone-food-tests.php
www.ozonesolutions.com/Ozone_Food_Processing.html
www.indianozone.com/food.htm

dont worry OP ull live :)