Written By Joseph Christian (China Daily)

His face as red as an apple my Chinese colleague rose to propose a toast. “To our cooperation and future,” he loudly blurted out across a table of half eaten food. As our table-mates stood he lifted his glass and shouted, “Ganbei!” The baijiu burned as it rushed down my throat.

When I sat down the same Chinese colleague turned to me and said, “Now that we are happy drinking together we will leave this table as good friends.”

Even though my head was spinning I realized that drinking carries much more cultural significance in China than it does in America.

“Chihao, hehao” (eat good, drink good) as the Chinese say. In a more official setting when you are invited to a banquet with your Chinese colleagues or business contacts, you are expected to drink.

If a toast is offered you it is rude to refuse it.

Most of the time this aspect of Chinese culture is warm and inviting. Sometimes it gets completely out of hand.

In the last month alone newspapers have run stories about officials, businessmen, and even police dying from alcohol poisoning after drinking too much at lavish banquets or business dinners.

I have been to many such banquets and experienced this ganbei culture myself.

At these dinners there are often several round tables where the guests sit.

One time, at such a dinner, a Chinese friend next to me and explained, “There is a whole strategy to drinking.”

I was intrigued and asked him to explain more.

“When you toast other tables, try to toast the whole table at once, and when someone comes to toast our table, we must make them toast us one at a time.”

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know what will happen if you end up seeing the bottom of your baijiu cup 10 times in 10 minutes.

If you want proof then just go to any nice restaurant in Beijing where such banquets are held. Wait till about 9 pm and then take a trip to the bathroom.

You are sure to be met by foul smelling and largely baijiu based deposits in each stall.

Usually one of the culprits will still remain, staggering near the sink, insisting to his worried colleagues that everything is fine.

But as you catch a glance of his watery eyes, it’s obvious he would rather be somewhere else.

No one likes vomiting in some dank, dirty bathroom while their friends enjoy delicious food. Come to think of it, no one likes dying from alcohol poisoning. So the question begs to be asked: Why does ganbei culture remain so popular?

“Drinking is how you make contacts and even seal deals,” a Chinese professor told me.

“Refusing a toast will make me lose face and show disrespect. That’s not how to build relationships.”

It seems many Chinese are stuck between their common sense and the unspoken rules of ganbei culture.

But surely some of the recent actions of police departments and officials to honor the causalities of ganbei culture with words like “he died in the line of duty” and “martyr” will only make matters worse.

So if you find yourself sitting at a banquet where the alcohol is flowing, it would be a wise choice to insist on beer instead of baijiu. That way you can leave the dinner with your reputation, food, and life all intact.

To all my Chinese friends out there… please ease up on your offers of “ganbei”… killing me does not make me happy.

(Beerbeer) Crazy drinking run in chinese blood, as this happen in Malaysia too. Drink till drunk and show of drunken fist is quite normal scene at night spot. So drink beer is actually better then heavy alcohol… think about it… haha

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(China Daily) Fake “foreign” beers sold in some Beijing bars could cause sickness because of insanitary conditions in the brewing process, according to enforcement officers with the bureau of quality supervision in Chaoyang district.

The area is home to Sanlitun – one of the most well known bar streets in the city – as well as many luxury hotels.

“These beers are produced in small workshops with no disinfection process,” said Wei Jinsheng, head of the enforcement team.

“Customers in bars usually wouldn’t check what they are drinking, which raises the chance of getting a disease.”

In a recent raid on a rented house in Wuliqiao village, officers found four men making counterfeit beer that they hoped to pass off as Budweiser, Corona and Carlsberg.

The men were filling empty foreign beer bottles with Chinese beer and resealing them using a bottle-capping machine. Officers seized more than 10 boxes of adulterated beer.

They said Chaoyang is known as a base of fake beer makers.

In 2007, an adulterated beer production workshop raided in Chaoyang contained 7,000 boxes of phony foreign beer.

According to Wei, it is easy to pass off fake beer because many brands have a similar taste.

“Some people add water to light beers, such as Corona, which is quite popular among women in bars,” he said.

Officers said fake foreign beers are sold to bars for around 7 or 8 yuan a bottle and sold on to customers for 30 to 40 yuan a bottle.

In 2009, the team handled about 15 cases related to the production of adulterated liquor, including beer, Chinese white wine and foreign wine.

“I believe some bar owners know they are adulterated,” Wei said. “But since they are cheap, there is still big demand from the bars.” However, bar operators insisted they would not sell bogus beer.

A man who answered the phone at “The Club” said they “never sell adulterated beers”. “How can we do that? Our customers can tell when they taste our beers,” he said.

And a woman at a bar in Sanlitun, called Boys and Girls, also said they would not sell counterfeit brews. She told METRO the bar had purchased beer from a place called “Dinglixin”, before another woman took over the phone and said beers were “ordered directly from the manufacturer”.

He Liang, customer service manager from Babyface, which operates one of the largest bar chains in Chaoyang and other parts of the city, estimated that about 100 bottles of foreign beers are sold every weekday in a single chain bar.

Before the Olympic Games, many adulterated beers were produced in Datun, Chaoyang district, according to the enforcement team. Now, the sites are scattered in the outskirts of Beijing.

Some bar owners say they are actually the victims of the producers of adulterated alcohol.

Chad Lager has been running a bar named FUBAR in Sanlitun for three years. He said the fake alcohol problems seem to run along the distribution chain and employees.

“Most of the bars do not try to make fake alcohols. At least the foreign bars I’ve dealt with. But sometimes an employee buys a bottle of fake Absolut, brings it to work and steals your bottle of real Absolut. Or, it could be delivery drivers or further down the chain,” Lager said.

Garry Lu, director of Carlsberg China Marketing Team, remains optimistic about their anti-counterfeit system.

“Our marketing representatives in Beijing do regular checks on bars’ Carlsberg stock,” Lu said. “We only found five cases of counterfeit beer in Beijing in 2009.”

Wang Yuanyuan, a frequent bar-goer, told METRO drinkers may have difficulty telling the real thing from the counterfeit brews.

“Well, I cannot tell the brand from the taste,” Wang said. “I don’t think there is much difference between them. If I don’t order a cocktail, I would accept any beer handed to me.”

Zheng Tieqiu is another self-described “bar-worm”.

“I cannot tell the beer brand by taste, that’s why I choose to buy foreign wine instead of beers,” Zheng said, adding that a substantial number of apparently foreign alcohol may not be genuine.

(Beerbeer) Chinese New Year is on the corner, many of us will start stocking a lot of this golden liquid. Drinking a fake one will not be good. So make sure you get from a trusted outlet, as you may can’t the smuggle beer are genuine or fake. Price do play the role in purchasing, everyone wants cheap beer. So be more alert in what you buy, is not easy to taste the different of the beer.

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The TsingTao made locally, in GuangDong province, ShenZhen City, Bao An. ~RMB 3, 330ml can @ >/= 4.0% ABV

Not sure why most of China produce beer have lower ABV, as compared to our’s. Even TsingTao imported to Singapore have 5% ABV.

Nose, rice fragrant, somebody cooking rice?

palate, maltier the Singapore’s, refreshing, mid-bodied (fuller-bodied than those available in SEA)

finish, hoppy and short, typical china beer.

personally felt that althought it had lower ABV then those imported into Singapore’s but doens’t mean that the flavour are the same too.

ahhup

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