Before I moved over here in May, I started doing some research of what I should expect. I read 2 books about doing business in China, both of which had very big chapters on drinking. And ever since arriving on 9th June, I have learned that pretty much everything that was contained in those 2 chapters, is pretty close to the mark.
Here are a few key points to understand about drinking with Chinese business people:
1. Alcohol is served at every dinner or lunch you have with Chinese business people
2. If you don't want to drink, you need to show you don't drink from day one. Otherwise, come up with a bloody good excuse because you will be EXPECTED to take part.
3. You will be served either beer, wine (most likely red), rice wine...or the dreaded "Baijiu", which is translated to white wine (but it's not white wine. More like rocket fuel!).
4. Everyone at the dinner will propose a toast, either to the group, or to individuals. So, if there is 20 people at the dinner, you will be required to participate in 20 toasts.
5. When you do toast, it will most likely be "ganbei". This means bottoms up, or loosely speaking drain your glass. Luckily, you will be working from a shot glass
6. Don't expect to leave before the host or guest of honour. It is polite to stay the distance. You get lots of brownie points if you're one of the last men standing.
Now that I've let you into a few tips about drinking in China, let me get to the purpose of this weeks blog - tequila! On Thursday, we held the 3 monthly station managers meeting in Shanghai. It included a day of presentations from each manager, plus a session from me. Then it was dinner time. Always expected to be a lively affair.
My drink of choice at dinner was beer. The secret to staying the distance is to only drink when you are being toasted. I learned this the hard way because they keep refilling your glass. So, I kept my beer handy, and toasted everyone by taking a sip of beer. Not much "ganbei" action on Thursday night, which is fine. But I still managed to polish off about 10 beers. Oh, and the point of the dinner was to present some awards. And just to prove it, here's a photo.
After dinner, we moved to a local bar, and the drinks kept flowing. No one was leaving (the boss was still there), so we ordered. Wine and beer for most people, I ordered a double Baileys. I can handle that better than anything else after drinking alot of beer/wine. 2 double baileys later, the boss decided to wrap things up - not before he bought a bottle of Tequila and shots for everyone. At this stage there was about 10 of us left, and not many of the team had ever had a tequila shot. So, it was up to me to show them how it was done (Hey, I'm just improving China/Australia relationships).
Before I showed them, I thought I would tell them how we REALLY do it in Australia. "Have you ever heard of the Stuntman?" I asked. No. Well this is how we do it in Australia. You snort the salt up your nose, throw the tequila over your shoulder, then squeeze the lime/lemon in your eye. This was received with a few shocked looks, but mostly laughter as they did realise I was joking. Ah that good old Aussie sense of humour!
I downed the first shot, complete with the lime and salt, then joined in when everyone else did theirs. Hey, if they can handle Baijiu/Rocket fuel, a shot of tequila is nothing! We finished off the bottle (I had 4 shots), and called it a night. I was a little worried about how I would wake up on Friday, but surprisingly woke feeling OK. Maybe it was the fact that the boss bought a good tequila...or maybe it was the fact that I am slowly becoming used to the way we do business in China.
Ganbei!
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