Competitive Toasting in Beijing

I landed in Tokyo's Narita Airport after a few days in Beijing. I am struck by the blue skies after the smoke filled skies I left. For all the global warmers out there, you need to spend some time in Beijing and learn about the 80/20 rule. You can clean up 80% of the pollution for 20% of the money by shoveling it out of the air in Beijing. 

My stay was brief but I took away some impressions. Beijing is a modern city with new cars everywhere.  Foreigners do not drive there as they are automatically guilty if there is an accident. Police are very strict about drinking and driving. They can walk up to a car at random and stick a breathalyzer in your face. Penalty for intoxication is fifteen days in jail.  Driving is a constant game of chicken with pedestrians and bicycles as well as cars. Lanes are just general guidelines and are not viewed as restrictive. 

The Chinese love America's lifestyle. They listen to our music, dress western, study English in school, and volunteer for any assignment in the United States. They have difficulty traveling to the US and generally require three months to get a visa. They admire American oill companies above others in the world and consider them to have the best technology and people.

The Chinese are capitalist and it is expensive to live in Beijing. A 3000 square foot flat costs about $1,000,0000 for a 70 year lease.  No property taxes though since they do not own the land.

The first thing you notice at Beijing PEK airport is the arched seiling with wood slats soaring high overhead giving a clean contemporary feel.  The surprise was finding Santa and his reindeer.  Christmas decorations are everywhere. They enjoy the holiday and time off from work. Of course, it is not religious but the same can probably be said for most of America. 

The Chinese people do not know what brother and sister means because they do not have them. Still they remind me of growing up in a large family. They are very aggressive about everything just like driving. Getting on an elevator is like a rugby scrum. 

The thing common to all cultures seems to be gathering with friends and associates for dining, drinking, and competitive toasting.  The Chinese typically dine in large groups so you do not see our kind of restaurant with multiple tables of two to four. Everyone dines in individual rooms with large round tables seating up to 12 to 16 people. There is a large glass lazy Susan on the table that might be up to 8 to 10 feet in diameter. Dishes are served on the lazy susan perimeter and spun around to individuals to allow them to serve themselves.   Most of the food you will not recognize. Soups and teas are delicious and chosen for their health benefits. Some dishes are strange to our diet such as sea cucumbers that look like an octopus leg and are chewy. 

I tried a beer from a brewery built by the Germans on a Chinese seashore in the early 20th century. Tsingtao is a good lager. Most of their wine is from the US, Europe, Australia, Argentina, etc.  The national drink is Maotai, distilled from the waters of the Chishui and sorghum grain.  Chishui means Red River which is the name of another river dividing Oklahoma and Texas.  This clear liqour is served in minature goblets. It is 53% alcohol and has a taste that changes with each drink and later on starts warming you and evaporates from your pores. The best Maotai sells for about $300 per ceramic bottle.   It goes down the hatch in one swallow following a toast finished with "Gam Bei" literally "dry glass" or as we say bottoms up. One toast begets another in a competition of toasting and drinking.  If you are standing and holding your empty glass a young woman swoops in and refills it. The only escape is to put your glass on the table far from where you stand. 

We had fun at our two dinners with Ramsey and Lily from our Beijing office, our friends from Deutsche Bank, the Chinese company we were visiting, and our asset and business development team members.  

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