One of the things we were worried about travelling with our small children in China was whether or not it is easy to buy disposable nappies on the go - everyone who has small babies knows how quickly you go through a pack of Pampers. We read and heard a lot about how the Chinese hold the children over the bin to do their business - even my husband who went to China in 2008 said that it was the case back then. But it is not 2008, but 2024, so how is it now?
Good news: it is not like this! All the babies we have seen were wearing disposable nappies and we were able to buy nappies in every city we went to. You just need to find a bigger supermarket and you should find some nappies - most places should even have the Western brands you are familiar with.
Only twice we had any issues trying to buy nappies. First time it was in Beijing - it was right after we arrived in China, and we were trying to get some in a small local shop, and then in the pharmacy, without success. But once we were pointed by some locals to a bigger supermarket we were able to find Pampers in both sizes we needed.
The other time we were in a panic mode was in Chengdu. We decided to get them on the day we were leaving for Xining, and the supermarket we had marked on a map did not exist (only later the locals explained to us not to use Google maps because they are not being updated). The area we stayed in was near Chunxi Road, which was a very central, hip location which is home to luxury shopping malls rather than big supermarkets. But even there we found a supermarket in the fancy mall - one which had only premium stuff, with some super soft silky feel Pampers I had never seen before.
Out of our own paranoia we kept on carrying loads of nappies at all time but that was unnecessary - we were unsure about Tibet but ironicly Lhasa was the place we have seen most of the nappies in the whole trip.
So dear parents, fear not - China is all caught up when it comes to nappies!
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