Some people say I’m a bit over the top when it comes to sanitation, but I just think they’re naive. Sure, I might over-sanitize a bit, but I’ve got good reasons to.

Over the October holiday, the hotels at Universal Studios Beijing became a trending topic on social media for all the wrong reasons.

One blogger checked in and exposed just how dirty an RMB 2,800 per night room at the Universal Grand Resort was. He left UV stamps on bedsheets, glasses in the bathroom, towels, and the toilet bowl only to find them still there after housekeeping had “cleaned” his room. This particular blogger’s niche is that he tests hotels and restaurants for their sanitation standards and, unfortunately, this isn’t the first time that a luxury hotel in Beijing has been exposed for subpar sanitation standards.

All of which strengthens my resolve for overzealous sanitizing. As an avowed germaphobe, whenever I travel anywhere I have a cleaning routine. Everything that feeds my obsession can be found on Taobao by scanning the QR code in the app.

Step 1: Sanitize

Before I unpack anything, I wipe down the entire room with alcohol wipes. I pay extra attention to the most commonly touched surfaces like door handles, the toilet, phones, and most importantly the remote.

Step 2: More sanitizing

For the fabric surfaces I have sprays and I never, ever use any decorative pillows. Sure, a silk embroidered pillow on the sofa might be gorgeous, but those can’t be washed and sanitized the same way as white linen. Essentially, whatever is on there from previous guests is still there.

Step 3: Towels

I’ve gotten much better about not traveling with my own set of towels, but I’ll still bring my own face towel just in case. I recently discovered disposable dehydrated towels that expand when you put them in water. They come in every size – face towels are about the size of a quarter and full-size bath towels are only the size of a hockey puck, which makes traveling with them both sanitary and simple.

Step 4: The kettle

I never use hot water kettles in hotels. They’re difficult to clean and I don’t know who’s previously used them, nor what they’ve been used to cook. So, I have a travel kettle that’s made of silicone and compresses into the size of a dinner plate.

Step 5: The bed

I know I’m a bit overboard with this, but it gives me peace of mind at night. I travel with my own travel sheets. They’re like a giant sleeping bag that also covers the pillow so I don’t have to ever come in contact with the bed if I don’t want to.

Am I a bit obsessive when it comes to hotel room sanitation? Definitely! But as someone who’s worked in hotels before and seen more than a fair share of horrendous messes left behind by guests, I’ve got good reason to be.

KEEP READING: Universal Studios’ Hotels: Which Is the More Family-Friendly Choice?

Images: TaoBao

Some days it’s hard to say Baby Shark without adding doo do do do do to the end. Whether you love or hate Baby Shark, you can’t deny that it’s insanely catchy and stays in your head for days. Now the campy song that somehow turned into an Internet sensation is making waves again with a brand new version of its addicting tunes.

South Korean education brand PinkFong has released Wash Your Hands to teach kids (and grown-ups) how to keep those pesky germs away. Click the image below to watch the new Baby Shark video.

Photos: PinkFong

The People’s Daily reports that officials from the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau are touting a dramatic improvement in public swimming pool water quality standards over last year, when only "57.43 percent of pools in Beijing met water quality standards."

The bureau has been administering inspections on pools since June, and the report cites a Beijing Daily article that says of the 34 pools tested in Fengtai District, eight of them received an ‘A’ rating, the highest quality health and safety rating, 18 were rated as ‘B,’ six as ‘C’ and two pools were "too bad to be graded."

Unfortunately the report does not mention the number of pools in total citywide and which ones (i.e. pools in fitness centers) were inspected. Perhaps even more troubling is why the two pools that were allegedly "too bad to be graded" were allowed to operate for so long to begin with (much less how many more pools in Beijing are like this?). 

And despite the bureau’s announcement, swimmers interviewed for the piece still naturally have their reservations, provided in these "money quotes":

"The most disgusting thing about swimming pools is to find human spit floating on the water …"

"I saw people go straight into the pool after working out at the gym, without taking a shower …"

"The pool water in gyms is better than in an open-air pool … since open ones are more crowded and kids even pee in it …"

As a regular swimmer who has used a number of public and private pools in Beijing over the years, I tend to agree with the last comment and generally avoid swimming in crowded public pools for the very same reasons. Given their commercial pressures, it’s only natural to expect that pools at private health clubs are generally cleaner than their public counterparts.

But this isn’t always the case, especially when these same fitness centers get lax in their cleaning schedules (the raging case of athlete’s foot I got from one particular gym comes to mind).

These late summer months are probably the worst time as kids on vacation crowd up their parents’ fitness center pools during the day – you can always tell because the water gets so murky you can’t even see to the far end. On these occasions, one must literally weigh the benefits of a having a swim vs. the risk of exposure to lord-knows-what in the water (a situation that’s not unlike considering the pros and cons of running outdoors in Beijing). 

Given these realities, the fact that the health bureau is administering inspections on pools in Beijing is certainly laudable – let’s just hope the officials in charge stay consistent … and honest.

• The China Daily reports on an influx of local high school and college students who are shelling out money for plastic surgery:

Around 3 million surgical and non-surgical operations to improve looks were conducted in China in 2009, and the figure is estimated to double every year, according to partial data from the Ministry of Health, released in October 2010. Up to 80 percent of plastic surgery patients in Beijing last summer were high school and college students, with the rate expected to hit 90 percent this year, according to a study on the Beijing market by China Medical Treatment Orthopedics and Beauty Association.

• Stay-at-home dads are more likely to get divorced, says Parentdish: 

A study published in the American Journal of Sociology concludes stay-at-home fathers are more likely to get divorced because, try as they might, they cannot ignore the calling of their Klingon blood. They generally prefer to be out in the world, marauding and competing. Staying at home — especially because of unemployment — drives them to fits of depression.

• Meanwhile, another recent article on Parentdish describes a Swedish study tying folic acid intake with good grades: 

During the Swedish study, Reuters reports, researchers did not fortify foods, and kids didn’t use a lot of supplements.What makes the study unique is that it is among the first to examine links between folic acid and academic achievement, Torbjorn Nilsson of Orebro University Hospital tells Reuters. Nilsson and his team studied 386 teenagers who were finishing up ninth grade. When their grades from 10 core classes were added up, there was a clear difference between teens who got the most and the least folic acid.

• In other health news, Beijing officials launched another crackdown on illegal cooking oil in "C- and D-level" restaurants (whatever that means) this week, says The China Daily: 

Starting Sunday, inspectors in all district branches of the health bureau are to visit restaurants daily to inspect receipts for cooking oil purchases and investigate supply channels, said Cai Changjing, publicity official of the Beijing health inspection office. Restaurants are prohibited from purchasing cooking oil from illegal sources or buying oil products without having full information about the manufacturer. Violators will face penalties, and their cases will be referred to the public security department.

• Chinasmack has an interesting post (part of a series on overseas Chinese who have returned to live in China) by an American-born Chinese student at Fudan University who came back to China to study in a local high school after growing up in the US:

Yes, I’m probably a bit loony in the head. I think all through that time, I was trying to rationalize my existence. You see, back in the U.S., I was a dorky geek. I had almost no social life, few friends, but perfect grades. I took “Gifted and Talented Classes”, took the SAT’s 4 years early (1400/1600), and was well on my way to becoming an introverted scholar-guy receiving an above average salary for doing some technical job most people would find boring, like database management or whatever. On looking around, I realized that EVERYONE seemed to have the exact same personality as me. This made be feel uncomfortable. At least in the U.S., I could justify my lack of social grace with “intelligence”.