To live in China you have to know every thing about the regulations around so you can mange your life in a good way !

1- If you open a bank account by foreign currency in one province you canot take your money in other province !

2- If you married with a chinese woman from north of China you canot renew your visa for that reson in the south but you have to go to the place which you issued your marriage first time to renew your visa

3- you have no righ to apply for visa card even you leave here many years unless you hold a working visa!

Well, hi there, I am an American living in Kunming now and I have a question that I can't find an answer for.

I know that the tap water is not drinkable but I can not find good information on the nature of the problem. The reason I need to know is that I have heard various rumors about it and it affects the way I do things.

If it is really a big problem with heavy metals, then boiling water will not fix that. If it is bacteria then boiling is good enough. If it is pollutants, I doubt that boiling is enough?

I need to know because I don't know if it's safe to wash my dishes in hot tap water or not and I don't know if it is possible to clean vegetables like lettuce (which are mostly water) enough to be safe to eat.

I've googled a lot to get this answer but can't find it. Does anyone know more about this topic?

Well, I don't have any of the facts for certain--I suspect it may be heavy metals, but I've also heard bacterial contamination is a problem too--but from my experience, you can wash your dishes and vegetables in the water and come out okay. Of course, I prefer to dry my plates and vegetables before use again, but I don't think any serious harm will come to you from minute amounts of tap water.

I washed my dishes, fruits, and vegetables in Kunming tap water for five years and never had any problems. I also brushed my teeth using tap water and showered in it. You'll be fine.

I agree with Jess_KM. Been here for almost 3 yrs. I think some of it depends where you live. Some of the places the pipes are really bad which adds to an already bad situation as for as water is concern. I always took our water for granted back in New York. When I came here I realized how blessed I was living in the states with water you can drink of the tap.

Ok i have to say i am here in China for 5 years now .the water in general it's not high quality and safe for drinking and for long term of usage you will suffer some thing indeed .Local people use filters and boiling it at the same time .so i advice use filters too.

Thanks to all of you! You're very kind to respond to my questions.

Is it easy to buy good water filters in Kunming?

never seen water filters, but huge water dispenser bottles (18.9 litres, mine say) are cheap and readily available here. in general, people use these for drinking, and use tap water only for bathing and washing dishes. most furnished apartments will have a water cooler/heater that accepts these bottles

boiled water is okay to drink, as in it causes no immediate ill effects, but i think the comment above about heavy metals is valid, and i try to keep my consumption of it to a minimum.

As far as the kind that you attach to your faucet, they sell them. You can try GOME which is a famous brand store. They also sell water filters.