Chinese Liquor

Chinese people enjoy drinking Chinese liquor, and drinking plays an important part in Chinese social events. Some Chinese consider liquor to be as essential to their lives as rice, salt and oil.

Some scholars believe that the technique for making Chinese liquor originated in the Xia Dynasty (2100 BC - 1600 BC). Du Kang is considered to be the founding father of liquor makers. Others believe that the history of making liquor began some 7,000 years ago in the period of Shennong's reign. Shennong, sometimes called Yandi, was a legendary ruler who, it is believed, introduced agriculture and herbal medicine to the Chinese people. This occurred during the time when the ancestors of the Chinese people were giving up their nomadic lifestyle and settling into compact communities in the Yellow River Valley A stable lifestyle that allowed them to raise various kinds of grain made it possible to make liquor.

Famous liquors include Maotai from Guizhou Fen and Zhuyeqing from Shanxi,Wuliangye, Jiannanchun and Luzhou Laojiao from Sichuan, Gujing tribute liquor from Anhui Yanghe Daqu from Jiangsu and Dong Liquor from Guizhou.

Fruit wines include Gold Medal brandy, red grape wine and Weimeisi from Yantai, China Red Grape wine from Beijing, Shacheng White Grape wine from Hebei, Minquan White Grape wine from Henan.

Yellow rice wines include rice wine from Shaoxing, sinking-in-jar wine from Longyan and sealed jar wine from Danyang.

Two famous brands of the many varieties of fine beers available in China are Yanjing and Qingdao.