白酒 (Baijiu)

I tried 白酒 (baijiu / white liquor) for the first time last night. 白酒 is essentially the Chinese equivalent of Japan’s shochu or Korea’s soju, except the alcohol content is a lot higher – 58%! It is pretty lethal stuff. Chinese women use 白酒 as nail polish remover!

I am proud to report the following two things: 1) I drank 白酒 without any ill side effects, and 2) it actually wasn’t as bad as some of my friends have made it out to be. Granted, I had it in a mixed drink and not in a straight up shot, but it pretty much just tasted like a strong mixed drink. Which is fairly obvious, as I don’t see how a proper 白酒 drink could possibly be weak.

I’ve been told that it is routine for travelers that have hard seats on long train rides to get rip-roaring drunk so that the train ride is far more enjoyable than it would be sans-alcohol. I’ll keep you all posted on the state of my liver when I get back from my long journey to and from Hefei and Huangshan…

Tags: china