Drinking in China

Snow beer is the most popular beer in the world, despite being sold almost exclusively in China.  It was the first beer I had on the trip (on the flight there), the first of many.  I was most fascinated by the pull tab on the beer can, something that I hadn't seen since the '70's or '80's.

I didn't know that drinks were included with the international flight.  Hainan airlines really treated us well.  I haven't flown internationally since our wedding and honeymoon, so I don't know if including wine and beer with the flight is typical or atypical, whether it is for all airlines, or non-American ones.  I would be interested to hear in the comments section if anyone can supplement my info.

Staying hydrated in China is tough.  The tap water there is not for American constitutions, and may make you sick.  Luckily, you can drink beer anywhere you want.  Snow beer, for sure.

No kidding - this isn't really beer.  This is lighter beer than Budweiser.  It's just a slightly hoppier and slightly more alcoholic version of seltzer water.  So I'm not sure it's actually possible to get tipsy off Chinese beer unless you're a thirty-pound child.  Which I'm not.

Given the tour we were on, Master (our bus driver) kept a cooler full of beer for us and charged us a buck a beer to drink on the bus.  Better still, we could buy one as we were getting off the bus and just walk around any old place with it.  As an American, worried about open container laws and such, I'm not used to that.

Mmmm, bus beer!

I'm especially not used to feeling freer in communist China than I am in my home country.  That's one of the things that traveling really does, it opens your eyes to the myth of American exceptionalism (a phrase that appears to be completely not unique - the google search results boggled my little mind).  Cultures are different certainly, but there are always places each culture can improve.

As an aside, Master is the title used for bus drivers on these tours.  When you see twenty-six million people navigating the area around Shanghai, and the bus driver has to navigate between other buses, cars, mopeds, rickshaws, and bicycles with huge piles of stuff on the back... Well, you realize that you have to be a master to drive in that mess.

Anyway, it was awesome to have beer on the bus.  Coming back down off the trek up the Great Wall under a beautiful and rare blue sky and a hot bright sun and onto the bus, it felt so good to have a cold drink.  And strangely enough, although it was $.50 for a water and $1.00 for a beer, only the beer was cold, so what would you expect us to drink anyway?

The Great Wall is quite a climb.  Phew!  Give mah some beer!

And with all this near beer, water beer, snow beer, you'd think we had plenty of beer and wouldn't want any with our meals.  But still...

When we went out to eat, drinks were included with the meals.  But they'd only give you about four ounces of whatever it was you were drinking.  But more often than not, they'd leave a 22 oz bottle on the table. They wouldn't give you more.  That was it for the table.  So it was a shrewd move to sit at the kids table. Drinking at the kids table was aces.

Mmm, yeah!  Dinner beer!

On the streets of Hangzhou, from a streetside shop, I stopped for a bubble tea.  The signs were in Chinese, and the guy didn't speak any English.  So I got me a bubble tea by grunting and pointing.  I didn't know what I was ordering.  It looked like berry.  Turned out to be red bean tea.  The communication barrier had struck again.

Oh, and before I forget, this isn't unique to China, but it's the first time I had a glass of celery juice.  I liked it, but Nicole didn't.  She tried to put watermelon juice in it, and yuck, that was pretty bad.

I say yum.  You say?

Also, I always like to try to figure out what unique types of alcohol are available in various parts of the world. In China, the unique stuff I got to try was called Erguotou.  I didn't get to try any there, but I brought a bunch of it home.  After having a glass of it, I plan to use the rest to strip the paint off an old dresser somewhere.

No, the picture isn't upside down.  This is a picture of what the bottle would look like while pouring.

Another alcohol we saw there was Moutai, also Maotai.  Sounds good, but I didn't get any of this, and it doesn't appear that I can get it in the U.S.

I guess I'll just have to go back...