The lack of sanitary standards in everyday life has always been shocking to me whenever I've visited China to be honest. People often spit on the streets and cough and sneeze without covering their faces, even in the big modern cities.

Someone even vomited on my shoe in a subway station once and then just walked away without even acknowledging that they did it. I'm really not surprised that these diseases show a tendency to start in China.

In Hong Kong and Taiwan it's rather different - hand sanitizer is readily available and people actually wash their hands after using the restroom, etc.

Even in surrounding (and much poorer) South East Asian nations people seem to be much better at maintaining a better level of general hygiene.