Chinese Drinking Games
At this time of year it always feels like I am forever on one train journey or another, after travelling from Guangxi up to Wuhan on Monday and Tuesday, Thursday arrived and another trip on China Trains. In between I had two days of sorting out a few things in Wuhan before repacking my bags and heading to the train station once again.
This latest journey was shorter, just the seven hours to Yingtan in Jiangxi province; most summers I am travelling around, almost living out of a suitcase, this year will be no exception. I will be here for just over a week before heading off to Yangzhou in Jiangsu province, working there at a summer camp for a couple of weeks, I worked there last summer it was very hot but an enjoyable place to work and swap ideas with other foreign teachers, many of those that were there last year are also returning again.
After arriving in Yingtan at about 11pm, I had a walk of about ten minutes to reach our apartment. It had been closed up for a couple of months so after waking up my first task was to clean off the dust etc that had accumulated over that time. Later that morning a contact of mine called me with some potential work this summer, so we went off to discuss this with a lady that wanted me to teach her teenage daughter during the summer. Nothing definite was decided, she wanted to pay too low a price and then get a discount for one month’s teaching.
After that I was taken to lunch where I met several people, potentially I thought for discussing work this summer. It was soon clear that this was not the case, just a group of friends/acquaintances wanting to introduce themselves to me. It was barely twelve noon and too early in the day (in my opinion) for drinking alcohol, but that is the way things get done here in China, discussions are usually held over lunch or dinner with lots of food and alcoholic beverages.
When drinking anything alcoholic in China (usually beer or a strong liquor called baijiu), it is usually poured into a small glass and then one by one each of the people at the table will challenge the others to have a drink with them, sometimes just a small amount, for others the challenge is to empty the glass. My intention was to have just one bottle of beer but this was not in the plans of the others at the table and two bottles soon became three etc, etc. My final challenge that afternoon was to drink a full bottle in one, the Chinese love taking part in these types of challenges and you have little choice but to accept once you have been challenged to a drink. Once I finished my drink I said I had had enough drink and so no more for me, about 30 minutes later they are offering new challenges, all good fun and drinking in moderation on occasions like this is not considered.
On occasions like this, I will only drink beer; the other option is Baijiu, the strong liquor I mentioned earlier. If you translate Baijiu into English it translates as white wine, it is a strong spirit or liquor, many Chinese people will ask if you want to drink wine, it is certainly not wine. I first encountered Baijiu when I lived in Sichuan province, Luzhou city is where the best Baijiu is made, and the people there are very proud of this product and will often try to get you to drink it. I have learnt my lesson with this drink and hope to not have to drink it again.
After finishing up the afternoon drinking I was invited out again for the evening, I said I will have to return home and have a sleep first, about 6.30 they were back on the phone saying come on, we have food and more to drink. I returned but only on the promise of no crazy drinking, I am getting too old for that. We finished the evening around nine pm, at least I did, about half of this group of people were off to a karaoke bar (KTV in China), to continue their evening, I declined their invitation; karaoke is not my idea of enjoyment and went home. Hoping to have a more relaxing day and preparing for some work I have to do over the next week.
