Pharmacy Symptom Help

How to use this card

1. Save the image to your phone before traveling. We recommend screenshotting all 12 rescue cards and saving them to a dedicated “China Travel” album on your phone, so they’re available offline.
2. Open the image when you walk into a pharmacy and need to describe your symptoms. Point at the relevant word in the Chinese sentence (头痛 / 胃痛 / 感冒 / 发烧).
3. Show the Chinese text (top half of the card) to the pharmacist. The pinyin is there as backup if they want to read it phonetically.
4. Read the English translation to understand their recommendation back to you.

What the pharmacist will likely say

• “这个药一天三次” (This medicine, three times a day) — Standard dosage instructions. Always ask for the English version of the dosage by pointing at the box and saying “English?”
• “饭后吃” (Take after meals) — Take with food. Common for stomach and antibiotic medicine.
• “多喝水，多休息” (Drink more water, rest more) — Standard advice for colds and mild fevers. They may not sell you anything.
• “去医院看一下” (Go to a hospital to be checked) — They are correctly advising that your symptoms are beyond over-the-counter treatment. Take this advice seriously.

Pro tips

• Major pharmacy chains with foreigner-friendly service — 大参林 (Dashenlin), 老百姓 (Laobaixing), 海王星辰 (Haiwang Xingchen), and any pharmacy inside a 7-Eleven / FamilyMart / Watsons.
• Bring your existing medication with you — show the pharmacist your home country’s box and they’ll match the active ingredient to a Chinese equivalent.
• Common symptom-relief medications available in China — Tylenol (泰诺), Ibuprofen (布洛芬), Pepto-Bismol (思密达), Tums (达喜), DayQuil equivalents (日夜百服咛). Most western brands have local versions.
• Always ask about side effects and interactions — point at the ingredient list and use a translation app to check for conflicts with any prescription you’re already taking.
• Screenshots work offline — make sure you have the image saved to your phone, not just bookmarked in a browser.

Related guides

• China Medical Tourism and Wellness — what to keep in your travel first-aid kit
• Essential Apps for China — translation apps that read medicine labels
• China Travel Safety Guide — what to pack for common travel illnesses

When this won’t help

If your symptoms are severe (high fever above 39°C, severe dehydration, allergic reaction, chest pain) this card won’t replace a real doctor. Instead:

• Go directly to a hospital — show the hospital emergency card (Card #8) instead. Pharmacists are not doctors and will not dispense prescription medicine.
• Call your travel insurance hotline — they will direct you to the nearest English-speaking clinic.
• For severe allergic reactions, dial 120 immediately — anaphylaxis is a life-threatening emergency that needs epinephrine, not a pharmacy visit.
• Use an international hospital if available — they have English- speaking doctors on site and can prescribe foreign-brand medicine.