The Other Bar Tab

China is the land of temptation.

Much of the food is good and cheap. You can eat in restaurants here for less than US $5 per day; you can eat at home for a lot less.

The ladies are pretty, and enough are willing. And many of them are also cheap.  (Sorry, expat ladies, you maybe kinda came out on the short end here. But you always have us.  )

Booze is dangerously cheap. A bigass bottle of good beer costs less than 40 cents US. A big bottle of surprisingly good brandy costs US $1.50. An average night at the bar might run US $25; you can go drink like James Joyce on his birthday for less than $50...MUCH less if a special is on. Drinking at home is cheap, but the bar is where all the other expats are...
Other mood-adjusting agents are readily available at reasonable prices if one knows the right persons and keeps one's eyes open.

As a result, I think many of us are kind of living a sort of continuation or return to our college days here. Yes, I know a lot of us are good clean hard-working stable folks too, but I've known a LOT of people who are either a) in a classroom or b) in a bar. A lot of people are at the bar, drinking hard, every night.

I suspect some of us got off the plane tanked and just stayed that way. I for one was NOT a big drinker when I came here. I slowly turned into one...at least much bigger than I had been. Coping mechanism? Maybe. This place is plenty weird. Boredom? Good guess...there's not a helluva lot else for many expats to DO on a day-to-day basis. Social pressure? Could well be...as mentioned above, for many of us the bars are about the only social network we have.

A lot of us are having a lot of FUN here.

But I'm starting to piece together another side.
I recently learned that I had adult-onset diabetes. Since then, I'm meeting a number of other expats saying the same thing. Unlike most of them, sadly, I'm largely retired from drinking. I'm in the early days but I can already tell you...diabetes sucks.

I'm seeing a high amount of diabetes. I'm seeing a lot of chronic stomach disorders. I'm seeing a lot of nice quiet people turning into mouthy aggressive flaming assholes every night. I'm seeing a few cases of people drinking themselves to death. I'm finally seeing alcohol as the dangerous, powerful drug people say it is. I'm seeing it do bad things to people I like a lot.

I don't know where I'm going with all this. Not trying to say you shouldn't drink or hit the bars. Maybe just trying to say that I suspect there may be some monsters of our own making lurking along the path; please be aware they're there and stay out of their clutches.

Maybe the fact that we CAN go nuts every night doesn't mean we necessarily SHOULD.

Sure would like a nightcap. 
Thank God I'm stoned. 

Powerful, Raoul.  Of course there are always exceptions.  I am one of the lucky ones as you well know.  I came here with a partner, my best friend.  None of those lonely nights where I would have to wander in search of company to make the hours disappear before entering a classroom for another day of acting.  No evenings of hunting for fresh young Chinese, no evenings of listening to another expat listing all the reasons he despises the Chinese while at the same time bad-mouthing his homeland. 

As I said, I am one of the lucky ones.  As I move around this strange world, I get to meet with others such as you.  And for that, I am richer. 

Have some hong cha on me, buddy.  Let's laugh over another bowl of noodles.

The ladies are pretty, and enough are willing. And many of them are also cheap.  kingleer (Sorry, expat ladies, you maybe kinda came out on the short end here. But you always have us.  toast)

Being pretty is a blessing and a curse. Do we have you? No, we don't. You are way too spoiled by numbers.

One of the problems with stopping an activity like drinking and still wanting to enjoy a good social life is that you have to mix with those who are drinking - and then you start to wonder if it's all as much fun as it looks.  You're sober, they're not - and their actions start to look really silly and immature.   Then after a little while you wonder if it was always like that, and then if you were also like that and then ....

I definitely drink more here than I did back home.  For one thing I was at work way more often than here - so not up to partying a lot regularly.  Another reason is that most of my friends are younger than I am so they like to head out to bars and discos.  At home they were closer to my age and we did other things - go to concerts, have dinner parties etc.

Here is  a different lifestyle , with different contagions to go with it.  No more stress headaches, a few more hangovers.

Hey Raoul,
This is the first I have heard of your condition. What can I say? I won't give you the medical advice that you probably already know.
Last year my Chinese friend, Allen was diagnosed with diabetes.  He is a little plump and he took full control of the situation by using diet.  He is half the man he was.  No problems now, he just called me from T after driving there from Dongguan.  I could have gone if I didn't have to work.  He is off climbing mountains and I think he has never been healthier.  He still enjoys a beer now and then.
Diabetes is a managable condition.
I agree your post was powerful.   Very perceptive.
Cheers
Woza

I agree Raoul with Woza.  Pretty powerful stuff.  You write well.

I think both you and LE should write about their experiences here in China.

Both should come with the wonderful pics you take.

Stay well dear friend.

Booze is dangerously cheap. A bigass bottle of good beer costs less than 40 cents US.

Depends on your definition of good!!!

The nearest to a good beer for 3 RMB I've found is kingway.  That would still count as piss if it were in england though!!!

To be honest I find even the strong ones a disappointment too.  It's not the strength, it's the taste, something to do with them being made from rice rather than the traditional euro way.  I guess for americans this may not be so odd, as i believe bud is also a rice based beer.

About the diabetes: sorry to hear that

My family has a history of (non-late-onset, inherited) diabetes.  My dad has it, my dad's gran had it, my cousin has it.  As a result, I avoid too much sugar.  With that type of diabetes though it's not so much related to alcohol as cakes/sugar etc.

I'm amazed if many people can afford to hit the bar every night on a teacher's salary.  I guess this is why they don't save money... I save a lot, but if i went to the bar each night i wouldn't save a thing...

Well said Raoul.I too wasn't a heavy driker when I got here.I was in my early twenties but I grew out of it and moved on to chronic marijuana smoking.

 Since I've been here I figure less than 10 days have gone by where I didnt crack a beer.Last summer I probably took years off my liver.I'm not big into bars and clubs but I do frequent allnight small eats restaurants where beer goes for 2.5 yuan a pop.


 The birth of my son has done a lot to keep me at home and monitor my drinking.But still...I drink every day.A lot less than before but more than I should.Some mornings I can feel the damage I've done to my health and don't like it much.

 Why do we do it?I used to think because we want to be out doing stuff and in many of our Chinese hometowns that means going for a drink.Now...I'm not so sure.I go out a lot less but I still like a few beers at the crib.Maybe it has just become habbit.

DeCurso...please be careful.  That innocent habit may become an affliction. 

Or said another way, the "habbit could become a hobbit".

Yeah I need to watch it too.  I usually have quite a few bottles on friday/saturday nights, usually just reading stuff on the internet/watching football and films.

Thanks to all where owed! 

I don't think a bit on the weekend will hurt you much unless you are truly Driving the Buick to Borneo on all these weekend occasions.

I know so many people here who are drinking (as in more than 1-2 beers or a glass of wine with dinner) pretty much every night. That's the one that'll eventually get you!

Yes, heavy drinking each and every night is seriously bad.

In the UK I would be totally clean from Monday to friday afternoon, then Friday pm I would hit the pub, then saturday morning to the speasy groon, afternoon back to the pub, watch some football, head out again in the evenings, go to a rave/club, come in at 10am on a sunday morning (or later)...

Here I will have a couple on the odd weekday evening (say two bottles of beer on a tuesday) and then the 5-6 bottles on fridays/saturdays.  Also the beer here has to be half the strength of what I was drinking in the UK (Stella), even the decent stuff here.

Well, here's a moral: if you don't care for yourselves, care for your children who do want to see their daddies/mommies while they grow up...