Where to buy ACE bandages in Shanghai

Yes, it's hard hitting reporting like this that has people wondering how we avoid the censors. But we recently found ourself in need of an ACE bandage, known in some parts of the world as an elastic bandage. Back home, we would have just headed to the local drugstore to buy one, but we had heard some people having trouble finding them in Shanghai — so we figured we'd tell you how we found ours yesterday.

We followed a tip from a friend:

There's an orthopedics and amputee hosptal on Jiaozhou Lu between Beijing Lu and and Xinzha Lu (north of Jing'an Temple). There's quite a few stores around there that have this stuff, along with knee guards, ankle braces, prosthetic legs, wheelchairs. You may find what you need there.

Sounded like a good idea, so we went there ... and the stores had everything but ACE bandages. These places all seemed like they should have ACE bandages, but they looked at us like we were stupid for thinking they would. Where did they tell us to go? Our local drugstore. D'oh!

So we went to a pharmacy near Huashan Hospital (it's the pharmacy directly across from the hospital on Huashan Lu, closest to the intersection with Wulumuqi Lu). And sure enough, they had them. They are called 弹性绷带 (dan xing beng dai, literally "medical elastic bandage") and they were RMB 3.6 per 75x4500 mm bandage (the 4500 must be measured when the bandage is completely stretched out). We assume most local pharmacies would have them.

But if you don't feel like leaving the house (or are too injured to do so), there's always good ol' Taobao. These are pretty much exactly what we got, and cheaper (until you factor in shipping).

While you are icing and bedridden, you may enjoy this rock opera starring Ace Bandage.

Be careful out there.