It’s late December again, which means it’s time for my favorite filler material — “best of” and “top ten” lists! Let’s start off with MyHealth Beijing’s most popular new posts of 2010, in order of popularity:

1. An American Doctor In China: What’s Different? — MyHealth Beijing’s #1 post seemed to strike a chord with readers, as I offered more personal ramblings on my life here as a doctor. I still haven’t written the followup, “what’s the same”?…
2. Plants Can Improve Indoor Air — Air pollution, as usual, was the top general category, and this post (as well as #9) discussed the importance of controlling your indoor air. We always worry about outdoor air, but we spend 90% of our time indoors!
3. Top Ten Wellness Tips For Beijing Newbies — This was a very popular  general piece, which offered a capsulized version of this website’s constant goal — how to stay healthy and happy in Beijing.
4. Using the Beijing Air Quality Index (AQI) – Part I — This was a guest piece by Chris Buckley from Torana Air and offers a nice primer on reading the AQI, usually from the US Embassy’s feed
5. Blueair vs. IQAir Purifiers: And The Winner Is… — As I expected, this piece got a lot of traction as the issue is always debated. I offered some real-world comparative data from a home experiment last year.
6. Expatitis: Are You Infected? — This was part one of a series of posts where I try to describe certain common threads of maladies that I see in many expats — something I coined as expatitis. I was hoping that by putting a name to this constellation of symptoms, that expats could see their own warning signs and take some preemptive steps to staying healthy.
7. What’s Your Favorite Chinese Medicine? Here’s My List… — After four years of working in China, I finally had a group of Chinese medicines I was comfortable enough to recommend. I’m still surprised by how small the list actually is…
8. Pollution Masks: Which Are Best? — Part of a series of posts on N95 masks for pollution, this post reviewed the evidence, especially for the hard-to-find Totobobo masks
9. Indoor Plants: Natural Air Purifiers — This post offered some practical tips on which plants to use indoors.
10. My Top Relaxing Drives in Beijing — This was probably my most surprisingly popular post, more of a casual reflection on my driving experiences here in Beijing. I’m very happy that many people took my advice!