I've been making two lists of things I think might be helpful to
people with future plans to go to/live in Taiwan, and they probably apply
to China too so I'm writing them down for myself as well since I might
forget in my three months back stateside.

Pharameceuticals one might want to have in hand that can't be found here:

Easily found at Rite Aide but not at Watsons, in no particular order:

Purel (hand sanitizer, one big bottle and a small bottle to actually carry
around for daily use)
Peptobismol
Nyquil
Advil
Deoderant
Face wash of choice (I'm scared that they might have put bleach in the
ones here, plus I like Clearasil brand)

Things you can get easily here:

American brands of shampoo, pads, q-tips,
toothpaste, toothbrushes, Chapstick, moisturizer, make-up, soap

Some useful Chinese basics. I'll just give
the pinyin without tones because I don't want to look them up, the
translation, and the literal translation only if its humorous.

Shuaiguo fruit
Laoshi teacher
hen hao very good
bu hao not good
feichang hao extremely good

Useful day to day stuff:
wo I
ni you
ta him/her
hen very
mei banfa can't be done (no way)
mei wenti no problem (no question)
mei guanxi it doesn't matter (no relationship)
you banfa there is a way
you wenti there is a problem
you guanxi it does matter
ni hao hi
ni hao ma how are you? (you good?)
zenmeyang/zenme le? whats going on? (slang, only for people of your same age)
hai hao 's ok (not good connotation, could be better)
bu yong no use, as in "no thanks, I don't need whatever"
zao an good morning
wan an good night
zaijian goodbye
dui bu qi excuse me (sorry for being truly rude)
zhen de really, truly
dui bu dui? true or not?
dui, bu dui true, false
hao bu hao? good or bad?
wo yao I want
wo xiang I am thinking about
wo ai ni I love you
bu hao yisi I'm so embarrassed (said by people in the service industry all
the time if you ask them to do something they can't, or if their aren't
any seats at a restaurant)
hao wan fun
piaoliang pretty
congming intelligent
qing ni ask someone to do something
mafan ni can I trouble you to...?

important as a guest:
chi bao le I'm full (I've eaten to capacity)
chi bu xia I'm full (I can't put down another bite)
xie xie thank you
xie xie ni nicer thank you
bu xie no thanks
bu ke qi you're welcome (don't be polite)

important as a foreigner:
wai guo ren foreigner (outsider, from outside the country person)
meiguo ren American, which is what people will assume you are if you are
white
ni hui shuo yingwen? can you speak English?
wo hui shuo zhongwen/guoyu/huayu. I can speak Chinese
zai shuo yi ci say one more time
tai gui too expensive
zui pianyi cheapest

two of my favorites:
lihai I like this word because you can translate it to something similar
to "hardcore" which is how I translate it in my head which makes everyone
sound a little hipper
mafan troublesome, a word we don't use that much in English, but you can
use all the time in Chinese

ways to respond to compliments:
mei you literally don't have, whatever you said that was nice I don't
have, what smart kid? I have no smart kid. What Chinese language skills?
I have no skills. What pretty hair? etc.
na you where has that? Surely you must be talking about some other place
or person who has that nice thing
nali/na'er where? same as above
tai keqi you are too polite
bu shi no it isn't
bu hui can't, don't say that!