Dear OLCC, I thought we were supposed to be the greatest country in the world…
Beer is popular in China, but nowhere is it more popular than in China’s beer capital: Qingdao. Home of the best-known Chinese brewery, Tsingtao, beer here is cheaper than anywhere else, and the locals have devised the perfect method for ensuring a happily intoxicated populace… the street keg.
It’s classic economics. Know what the people want, and provide it to them with a minimum of expense and hassle. In a red-blooded, beer-loving town like Qingdao that means rolling kegs out onto the street at about 9 a.m. and selling the naturally chilled, keg-fresh brew by the kilo. By serving it straight into plastic bags, the cost stays low: a one-kilo bag costs 4 yuan… about 50 cents.
This Mother Theresa of hoppy, malty happiness was pleased to serve us up a couple of frosty kilo bags worth of Tsingtao draft. Note the absence of joyless bureaucrats yelling at her for improperly cordoning off her sales area and not checking our ID.
We got our beer, she got her money, and insisted on a photo to memorialize the event. Note Sudsy smiling his approval… this is the way Sudsy meant it to be.
Guzzle! That’s right, bitches… I’m not in a licensed drinking establishment. I’m on the freakin’ street! Try to stop me from drinking my beer now, faceless bureaucrats! STOP ME NOW!
It’s nice to know, with so many misunderstandings between our two countries, that people here really do know how to speak our language… and I’m not talking about English. OK, back to the beer!
