chinese traditional liquor

as the most favorable alcohol in china, liquor plays an important part in chinese lives and has a long history. just like such daily necessities as rice, salt and oil, liquor also has a close relationship with chinese people's lives.

according to some scholars, china is one of the countries with the longest history of making liquor. they believe that the history of making liquor can be traced back to the period of shennong's reign more than 7,000 years ago. he was a legendary ruler, also sometimes called yandi, who is supposed to have introduced agriculture and herbal medicine. at that time, the ancestors of chinese people gave up their nomadic lifestyle and started to live in compact communities in the yellow river valley. the plantation of various kinds of grain laid the foundation for making tempting liquors.

other scholars hold the view that the technique of making chinese liquor originated in the xia dynasty (2100 bc-c.1600 bc). du kang is considered to be the founding father of the profession of making liquor.

since ancient times, china's spirits and liquors have developed in their unique way and have won many international awards. 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 form 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. yanjing and qingdao are two famous brands of the many varieties of fine beers available in china.