Cook at home is in theory good advice but not if you are going to need to buy cooking equipment which you can only give away at the end of your contract. May not be cost effective?

I think a microwave and an oven are not essential for cooking. He will surely find an electric hotplate, a wok and a frying pan in his apartment. There will also be a sauce pan or a pot for boiling food, and, of course an electric rice cooker. He can use the wok for frying chips. That's what I do.

Ryan should certainly have the hep a jab before he negotiates Chinese food. In a way the sooner he is violently sick the better for building up his defenses.

When I first came to China, security at Edinburgh airport removed the hepatitis medicine that I would have to finish taking in China to protect me! I have never bothered with it since. Yep, maybe he needs to spew up here to allow his body to develop antibodies. Advice, eat bananas and drink Cola to cure yourself. I bought an anti-diarrhea medicine here. It works well - its white tablets in a narrow orange cylindrical bottle about an inch and a half long. It contains about 9 tablets, costs 3RMB. Funnily enough, I had more stomach problems in Blighty than in China. And I have dined out in China many many more times than I ever could afford to do back home! Not only fry-ups using old/rotten fat in restaurants and company canteens, but also dirty pipes, or cleaned pipes without the cleaner removed properly, in pubs has also made me sick as a dog.

It is unfortunate for him that he needs to save out of a tiny salary, which is usually just enough to have a spiffling time.

I dunno if his salary is tiny. For all we know, his debts might be large! I also dunno if he's into travelling. What you might think is spiffing needn't necessarily be what he thinks is so!