Eric's Beijing Diary

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Rode my bike to Houhai park today. Beautiful day for a bike ride. And Beijing is the best town in the world for riding bikes. Almost every street has a special bicycle lane. And the town is basically flat, so a casual pace can get you just about anywhere before too long. Before sitting down and having a latte at a lakeside cafe, I stopped at a small Muslim (Xinjiang) restaurant and got a couple skewers of barbequed lamb. Really delicious stuff. Problem is, there was a guy in there who was putting away baijiu like it was water. Baijiu is not water. A word to the wise, folks. If you're traveling in China, and someone asks, "Would you like some wine?" make sure it is really wine they're talking about. Baijiu is definitely not wine. It is a distilled beverage--basically a whiskey, made from sorghum. Now, I would not call myself a teetotaler, but I do have a philosophical problem with distilled spirits, because in the distillation process, the alcohol content is artificially elevated far beyond what would occur, unassisted, in nature. Baijiu is not a natural beverage. But the guy was friendly, so I politely took a little sip. That didn't satisfy him. He kept trying to get me to drink more. I have become accustomed to this subtile (in this case not so subtile) pressure in China. I have heard people say that in some situations, they will "force" you to drink alcohol. That isn't true. I have never been forced. Nevertheless, sometimes folks (especially men, and especially drunk men) can be quite pushy. If they want you to drink more, and you politely excuse yourself, they really do get kinda sore at you.