The White Dragon

This post is mostly going to cover something you will probably experience if you go to China. It is called Baijiu though we've taken to calling it the White Dragon. Baijiu (白酒; báijiǔ) means white alcohol in Chinese. Don't confuse it with white wine which is Bai Putaojiu (白葡萄酒; báipútaojiǔ). It's a very strong clear alcohol, about 40-60% alcohol by volume and 80-120 proof. It's very similar in appearance to vodka, Japanese shochu, and Korean soju but stronger. Just think of Everclear from a nation with loose alcohol strength standards and you got it. You can buy it at any convenience store, mom and pop hole in the wall stores, and big supermarkets. It runs from 4元 to as expensive as Western alcohol, which is in the hundreds of 元. You really get what you pay for too.

This is Erguotou, (二锅头; èrguōtóu) which Wikipedia tells me means "head of the second pot". As you can see, this bottle looks like it came from a former Soviet Republic, an Eastern Bloc state, or the now defunct Yugoslavia. It doesn't waste time on things like advertising or graphic design, for 4元 (under $1) you've entered flavor country my friend. At 56% alcohol by volume, it'll get you drunk. It is clearly a drink designed to dull the pain of a working class, a very pained working class. It's apparently really popular in Beijing, where it's made, and in the North among blue collar workers.

When we got into Shanghai, we bought a bottle of this for about 5 of us to try out. We had been told several times that we would be required to drink baijiu at official functions. Yes, that is correct, I would be expected to drink at official school banquets. The president of the university is quite the drinker and in the Chinese toasting tradition, he comes around to us and we will be expected to drink to his challenge, health, or whatever is put forward. This can be done many times in one go around too. You also have to do this with the people of importance as well so that equals a lot of drinking. You don't have to do it with baijiu but that's the default in Henan. The Communist Party secretary at the school is also a big drinker so we've been working on our A game to show the reds how we do things in America, Rocky IV style. We have not drunk with the secretary yet but when we do, USA all the way. If you go to any other important functions too, like weddings for instance there will be a lot of baijiu drinking too.

This is Yang River Blue Classic (洋河蓝色经典;yánghélánsèjīngdiǎn) which is much better than Erguotou. This is what we had at the banquet held in our honor when we arrived. The bottle we had ran for about 125元 and was pretty smooth. It was still just as potent as Erguotou. One of my coworkers had about 7 shots of it so we call him the Dragon Slayer. I only had one shot but I drank a lot of beer instead because the White Dragon has destroyed many a man. We had just gotten there and I had only been in the country for a week so I wasn't looking forward to vomiting all over a classy expensive Chinese restaurant in the same tradition as George H.W. Bush at a Japanese banquet.

Luckily though, beer is served pretty much everywhere and Western alcohol can be found in town so I don't have to resort to baijiu to get my drink on. You can also get Suntory products here so for relaxing times, we can make it Suntory time.