There were a lot of fresh fruit and vegetable vendors who had their good set up on the streets in Beijing, but we never patronized any of them. We’d read that human waste was sometimes used to fertilize the fresh stuff and that we’d need to really clean our fruits and veggies if we were going to eat them raw. Since we didn’t have those kinds of facilities in our hotel room, we decided to avoid them completely. These days, I think that night soil is less toxic and that scientists are working on making the practice of using human waste for fertilizer into something more sanitary and acceptable. It is, after all, a clever use of something that we have in abundance. Still, it’s probably wise to wash the fruits and vegetables in Beijing really well, just in case.
