On Jan 9, when smog began to enshroud cities in China, a post suddenly went viral on Sina Weibo, a popular micro-blogging platform in China.

Written in a funny style by a netizen identified as a Traditional Chinese Medicine food therapy specialist in Guangdong province, the post advises people to eat black fungus and coagulated pig blood to protect themselves against the negative effects of particles in the polluted air.

So far, the "TCM" post has been reposted nearly 2,000 times, and received hundreds of comments.