Drinking culture in China: toasts, baijiu and survival

At a Chinese banquet, alcohol is less a drink than a way of talking. A toast shows respect, an emptied glass shows sincerity, and a refusal has to be handled with some care. The rules are not complicated, but they are different from "cheers, everyone" at a European table.

How much they matter depends heavily on where you are. Kungfucius's observation from many dinners: the further north you go in mainland China, the more is drunk, and in Taiwan the whole business-drinking ritual hardly exists. The regional picture is below, after the toasts you will need.

What does ganbei mean?

乾杯 (干杯) gānbēi is made of 乾 (干) gān, dry, and 杯 bēi, cup. It is used like "cheers", but the literal meaning is an instruction: dry the cup. At a formal dinner in mainland China, someone who toasts you with 乾杯 often means exactly that, and will show you the empty glass afterwards.

The escape clause is 隨意 (随意) suíyì, "as you like". If the other person says it, or you say it and they accept, each of you drinks as much as you want. Listening for which of the two words was said is the most useful drinking skill in Chinese.

Toasts and sayings at the table

Chinese	Pinyin	Meaning and use
乾杯 (干杯)	gānbēi	"Dry the cup": cheers, bottoms up
敬你一杯	jìng nǐ yì bēi	"A toast to you". To someone senior, use 您 nín: 敬您一杯
我敬大家一杯	wǒ jìng dàjiā yì bēi	"A toast to everyone", useful for a guest who wants to cover the table in one go
隨意 (随意)	suíyì	"As you like": drink as much as you wish
我乾了，你隨意 (我干了，你随意)	wǒ gān le, nǐ suíyì	"I'll empty mine, you drink what you like". Generous from a host, and a polite way to honour someone without forcing them
先乾為敬 (先干为敬)	xiān gān wéi jìng	"I drain mine first as a mark of respect"
半杯	bàn bēi	"Half a glass", an accepted compromise
以茶代酒	yǐ chá dài jiǔ	"Tea in place of alcohol": toasting with tea or a soft drink
自罰三杯 (自罚三杯)	zì fá sān bēi	"Three cups as my own penalty", said by latecomers, sometimes seriously
感情深，一口悶 (感情深，一口闷)	gǎnqíng shēn, yì kǒu mēn	"If the friendship is deep, down it in one". A rhyming challenge among friends
不醉不歸 (不醉不归)	bú zuì bù guī	"No going home until drunk". A declaration of intent, not a rule
酒逢知己千杯少	jiǔ féng zhījǐ qiān bēi shǎo	"With a true friend, a thousand cups are too few". A proverb for good evenings

Longer toasts follow one pattern: 為 (为) wèi, "for", plus the thing you are drinking to, plus 乾杯. For example 為我們的友誼乾杯 (为我们的友谊干杯) wèi wǒmen de yǒuyì gānbēi, "to our friendship", or 為我們的合作乾杯 (为我们的合作干杯) wèi wǒmen de hézuò gānbēi, "to our cooperation".

How do you toast in China?

• The host starts. At a formal dinner nobody drinks before the host has made the first toast to the table. After that, toasts go back and forth all evening.
• You drink with someone, not alone. At a banquet, taking a sip of alcohol by yourself looks odd. If you want to drink, toast somebody.
• Juniors toast seniors. Younger or lower-ranking people go to the senior person, stand, and offer the toast. As a guest you should toast the host at some point, and the most senior person present.
• Hold your glass lower. When glasses touch, the rim of yours should be below the rim of the senior person's. Two polite people can end up lowering their glasses towards the floor in turn. Let the older one win.
• Two hands show respect. Hold the glass in the right hand and support its base with the fingers of the left.
• At a big round table, tap. When you cannot reach, tapping the foot of the glass on the table or the turntable counts as a clink.
• Fill other glasses first, and never let a senior person's glass stay empty.
• Empty means empty. After a real 乾杯, people tilt the glass to show it.

At large dinners the host or the guest of honour often goes round the table and toasts each person in turn. If you are the guest of honour, doing a round with a small glass is noticed and appreciated.

Where to sit: the seating rules at a banquet

The drinking starts with the chairs. In Kungfucius's experience, seating at a Chinese banquet follows rules as firm as the toasts.

• The table is typically round, so everyone can reach the dishes and, more to the point, everyone can toast everyone.
• The chair facing the door is the most important one. That is the host's seat. The most honoured guests sit next to the host.
• The chair opposite the host, with its back to the door, goes to a junior member of the host's group. This person liaises with the restaurant during the meal and later settles the bill on the host's behalf.
• Hosts and guests are mixed around the table, so that every guest has someone looking after the glass.
• The host team will typically try to bring more people than the guest team. When every member of the larger team toasts each guest individually, the guests get drunk faster. It is hospitality and tactics at once.

There are many more rules, on who sits further from the host, who starts eating and who leaves first. The safe course for a guest: wait to be shown your seat, and do not sit down before the host does.

Baijiu, beer and what is in the glass

白酒 báijiǔ, literally "white liquor", is a clear spirit distilled mostly from sorghum, sometimes with wheat, rice or other grains. It usually has between 40% and 60% alcohol. The best-known name is Moutai (茅台 Máotái) from Guizhou province, whose standard bottling has 53%. Wuliangye and Luzhou Laojiao, both from Sichuan, are the other names you are most likely to see on a banquet table.

Baijiu is served in thimble-sized glasses, which is a mercy and a trap: the glass is small, and it is refilled all evening. The smell is strong and the styles differ a great deal, so a first bad impression is not final.

Beer, 啤酒 píjiǔ, is the everyday alternative and much lighter. Tsingtao, the most famous brand abroad, comes from a brewery founded in Qingdao in 1903, when the city was a German-leased territory. Snow and Yanjing are the other big names. Red wine is now common at business dinners, and it is frequently drunk as a 乾杯 too, which may hurt wine lovers more than the baijiu does.

Where people drink a lot, and where they do not

This is Kungfucius's own observation, not a statistic. Drinking culture in the Chinese-speaking world is strongly regional.

• Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen: less drinking. Business dinners in these cities are often moderate, a 隨意 is accepted easily, and in Guangdong a meal can pass with tea and soup as the main liquids.
• Further north: more. The further north the city, the more the table expects you to keep up, and the more toasts there are. Shandong and the north-east have a particular reputation for long rounds of baijiu and firm rules about who toasts whom.
• Taiwan: very little. People in Taiwan do say 乾杯 at weddings and over beer with friends, but Taiwan does not have the business-related drinking culture that Japan, Korea and mainland China have. No deal depends on your liver.

The mainland has also changed. The eight-point rules of 2012 cut back official banquets, and in May 2025 revised frugality regulations banned alcohol at official receptions and working meals for Party and government staff altogether. Private companies are not covered, but the pressure to drink at work is no longer what older guidebooks describe.

How to refuse a drink politely

A flat "no" in the middle of a toast makes the other person lose face. A reason, given early and with a smile, does not. Decide before the dinner, and say it before the first glass is poured: it is much easier never to start than to stop after three rounds.

Chinese	Pinyin	English
我不會喝酒。(我不会喝酒。)	Wǒ bú huì hē jiǔ.	I don't drink. (Literally: I can't drink.)
我今天開車，不能喝。(我今天开车，不能喝。)	Wǒ jīntiān kāichē, bù néng hē.	I'm driving today, I can't drink.
我酒精過敏。(我酒精过敏。)	Wǒ jiǔjīng guòmǐn.	I'm allergic to alcohol.
我在吃藥，不能喝酒。(我在吃药，不能喝酒。)	Wǒ zài chī yào, bù néng hē jiǔ.	I'm on medication and can't drink.
我以茶代酒，敬您一杯。	Wǒ yǐ chá dài jiǔ, jìng nín yì bēi.	Let me toast you with tea instead.
我隨意，您也隨意。(我随意，您也随意。)	Wǒ suíyì, nín yě suíyì.	I'll just sip, please do the same.
我喝半杯，可以嗎？(我喝半杯，可以吗？)	Wǒ hē bàn bēi, kěyǐ ma?	I'll have half a glass, is that all right?

Driving is the excuse nobody argues with. Drink-driving is punished severely in mainland China, and hosts know it. Health reasons work as well. Whatever you choose, keep toasting: raise your tea, stand up, lower your glass, say the words. The ritual matters more than the liquid, and a guest who toasts warmly with tea is better company than one who drinks sullenly.

Two further tricks from experienced banquet survivors: eat before and during the toasts, and keep a glass of water or tea next to the baijiu. Colleagues sometimes drink on behalf of a guest or a boss, a practice called 擋酒 (挡酒) dǎng jiǔ, "blocking the alcohol", but you should not count on a volunteer.

The wise guest toasts everyone at the table and remembers all of it the next morning.

What to do before your first banquet

1. Learn three phrases by heart: 敬您一杯, 我乾了，你隨意 and 以茶代酒. The guide to tones will stop 敬 jìng from coming out as something else.
2. Find out who the host and the most senior guest are, and toast both during the evening.
3. Decide in advance whether you are drinking, and if not, which reason you will give.
4. If you drink, choose one drink and stay with it. Baijiu after beer after red wine is a decision you will meet again in the morning.
5. Arrange your way home before you sit down.

More table vocabulary is on the page about Chinese eating idioms, and the wider customs of giving and receiving are covered under red envelopes. The everyday phrases for restaurants and hotels are collected under survival Chinese phrases.