The China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Chaoyangmen is considered a good hospital. It is set in a nice neighbourhood with a university down the street.
Even so, on one recent afternoon, the queues were long and people were getting the obligatory 'three-minute' treatment.
One man was there with his young son. He had taken time off work to bring him for treatment for what was most likely a minor bug. 'When it's a child, even if it's a cold, you have to check,' he said. The man, who said he made a reasonable salary, could have sent the boy with the family helper but said he 'couldn't trust the care' and wanted to be present.
Last July, the State Council released a two-year study on the health-care system, finding it to be in dire straits. As the government-run system has been privatised, care for the tiny minority of very wealthy has become excellent. For everyone else, it has become prohibitively expensive.
This issue is clearest when discussing the famously high savings rate among mainlanders. I'm often told that the primary reason is health care, because if there is an emergency, cash is essential to avoid big trouble.
So dominating is saving for health that during a recent visit by a United States trade team, officials encouraged Beijing to improve the pension system to encourage people to spend money and even buy on credit, helping to level out the huge trade imbalance.