I normally go to private (foreign) hospitals in China, and try to avoid the public ones as much as possible. They are certainly not all bad, but there is no privacy whatsoever, you have to wait in line for hours and in order to get good doctors you often need connections (and/or money). However, I heard some good things about the 'foreigner departments' of some public hospitals. They give good service and are reasonably priced. I'd advice you to give them a try.

@boyd Yes, that's another option. How about Hong Kong hospitals? In the early days in Beijing people were often flown to HK for emergency treatment.

I had a question…as part of the tightening up of the visa regime for ex-pat employees and the like, I'd wanted to know if this has resulted to some degree in more strict vigilance with respect to the "health insurance" requirement to secure the visa?

I mean, this naturally means that Westerners in the first-tier cities must patronize the more sophisticated, well-run medical facilities in burgs like Shanghai and Beijing, but how much better is the service in these places if the entire Chinese health system — both the public and private ones — is fuelled by the need to always give backhanders and "gifts?"

Your experience in this, for the non-executive employee, or in your case, as an entrepreneur? Have you blogged about this in the past?

I suspect this is one of the first things to check off the list when planning a potential move over to Zhongguo, something I personally am indeed contemplating in the semi-near future…

Abidingly,
–ADM