Bringing diabetes (and other) medicine into China

Is that a proprietary recipe, or should I keep some on hand?

Raoul, is it impolite to ask for diet coke/pepsi or do I just sip itty bitty sips per toast to keep the unnecessary sugar intake down?

Or you could swill gallons of tea.....which is my plan.

I rarely get the boozing thing around here, once per year max. The school bosses have vetoed alcohol at school gatherings. Dunno why, but that is good. I can keep the drinking part to other situations.

The university where I freelance hosts about three to four dinners a year for the FTs at a top hotel. I think I've only ever seen a few teachers have a couple of beers. Mostly people (including me) wallow in the Western buffet bar. The exception is the Spring Festival Dinner. People pop up all the time doing the rounds of the Departmental tables and making toasts. But they don't do the ganbeing. Most people toast with a glass of hot coke or some hot plum juice.

The business meetings I've been to were mostly conducted over tea parties. My main Chinese business person doesn't drink alcohol.

It's not easy to find diet coke or pepsi here - usually only at the big import stores.  Most smaller places don't have it and few restaurants will have it.  You can sip slowly at your normal strength coke or sprite. With juices, pepsi, coke and tea they don't expect you to do the ganbei thing. (Ganbei means to drink the whole lot - dry glass). Maybe the last toast of the night will expect you to down whatever is left in your glass.

The university dinners I been to (XISU, Jiaotong, Xidian, Yanliang, 4th Military, Xibei, Xigong, Military Missiles (all in Xi'an), Beiwai (Beijing), Sichuan Finance (Chengdu),  etc) have all had plenty of alcohol flowing. Weddings are lethal - and a couple of the weddings I have been to were filled with police who were either really close mates or family members and we were heavily encouraged to drink by them, despite saying we had to drive.  "No worries - we are the police" was the answer to that one!

Drinking here means 'face' and after I learned my lesson the hard way about giving face - especially to the guys - I have NEVER won another ganbei competition!! 

But the drinking is also part of a game - and it is a pretty subtle one in an overt kind of way!  Getting another person to drink more than you is a good move. (I was warned at the department dinner before last that the Dean was planning on getting me drunk and had lined everyone, even the women who DON'T ever drink, to come up to me singly and offer a toast.  He came with them and said - these women don't drink, but for respect of you they will drink with you tonight!! Can't get out of that round.)

Best words to learn for this game are 'sui yi' - as you wish.  This indicates that each of you can drink as little or as much in the toast as you wish.    The next level up is 1/3 - but that one can lead to having to drink the lot in 3 goes - need to watch that.  1/2 - same deal - can go either way.  Then ganbei - the lot.  Finally - and most lethal of all toasts - 3 cups.  Ganbei one, refill, ganbei the next, refill, and ganbei the final one. The Miao minority women are heavy on that one!! But I've had it happen here as well - at the Presidents dinner last week.  If you are stuck with one of these types of evenings make friends with the drinks waiter and get him to only half fill your glass, wrap your fingers round it so people can't see how little is in it.  I get truly grateful for that service!!

Tan and Mongolian ganbeis are similar - usually with the 3 cup deal - but with those you also have to also offer some to the gods by dipping your ring finger into the  glass, and then with your thumb flicking it off to the heavens (4 directions).

The last couple of dinners I have been to also offered red wine for toasts. This can be good or bad, depending on if it is dry or sweet!

What I bail out on is the smoking. I don't smoke, which is OK if you are a woman, or a western male (although for them a little loss of face happens).  Chinese guys lose more face, but I think that is gradually changing. The guys are usually good and ask if they can smoke, but the only real answer is 'of course, please do'. (Chinese guys are actually great at asking directions and permission for all sorts of things - but maybe that is a topic for the LL!  )
 
One business man I have a fair bit to do does a lot of training/mentoring of young people coming into the business and his advice to both the girls and guys is to learn to drink and smoke because it gains more respect, builds guanxi and therefore gains more business.  I tell them to learn to drink, but skip the smoking - it will make them look old faster.  That one works for the girls!  

My boss drinks very little - but he still makes sure he does at least some at the business things. He quits when business dinners move to karaoke bars - he sings then! (Another skill that is handy for guanxi - but one I DON'T have!)

When I have done business with women we have arranged to meet at a teahouse (the one at the end of Hui Min Jie is great for this)and done our work there.  But other times if we have moved onto lunch/dinner, even there, with just a room full of women, we have drunk the warmed opaque rice wine that is traditional for northern Shaanxi.

But this place is interesting - you end up doing stuff you don't do at home.  I drink more here than I did in Oz, Hindu friend of mine now eats beef, a Muslim laoban from my favourite kaorou place drinks baijiu (he says it is because his wife is Chinese!). 

You will be able to survive here without drinking or smoking. Especially if you NEVER do either. Medical reasons work pretty well.

I think it's a location thing.
Here in the Groovy East diet colas are very easily found. The little 'xiaomaibu' hole-in-the-wall stores don't always carry them, but 99+% of the convenience stores and supermarkets have them. They're usually also available in bigger restaurants.

You can find Diet Pepsi (best) and Diet Coke in both lemon-flavored (good) and regular (better than water). Diet Coke, sadly, is much easier to find than Diet Pepsi. Unfortunately, no diet cola can be found (to my knowledge) in 1- or 2-liter sizes. All you can get are cans and 640-ml twist-cap bottles.

If diet colas are available where you are, there should be no problems with requesting them. The Chinese are very health-conscious people and will probably understand completely. They may try to wean you over to nice healthy tea or water instead of diet cola; feel free to ignore them.
Since diet cola can be harder to find, I generally show up with a bag of my own bottles of it when I go out. It's kinda become a natural extension of my hand.

I know what you mean, Raoul, here in my tree-hugging home (for the next 3 days) in northern CA, any kind of soda that isn't organic, herbal and carbon neutral is often hard to find in a lot of places -- not including gas stations, McDonalds, and grocery stores, thank goodness.  I am a Diet Coke person, is the DC really bad to everyone's taste, or just Pepsi fans?

DC is bad - and so is Pepsi!  I'd rather drink mineral water or plain water than either of those.

I find the carbonated colas quite flat here, 7up is much more bubbly.

I've been struggling with my weight ever since I quit smoking, so I've embraced the brown fizzy aspertame water.  I'm pleasantly surprised at how tolerant the bars are at my showing up with my own drink and not spending a single mau.

...or maybe they just know me well enough to be patient.   

This only works at the Shamrock, though...the other bars will kick your ass if you don't buy something.

Well, just to finish this topic, I arrived in Shanghai with suitcases full of pills, needles and vials of insulin.  There was no place to declare medicine at customs on arrival, and they couldn't have cared less.  I immediately checked in for my flight to Changchun and after the clerk gumbled about my 3 check-in bags (paid for in the US), he put them through Chinese security and on I went with needles and insulin through the carry-on security check.  Not a blink, they didn't even look when they saw 30 bottles of insulin and such.  Guess my worries were for nothing this time.  I even found diet coke in the supermarket across the street from work.  I have it made.

Welcome you to China, Shroomy. Hope everything goes well, and happy every day!!

Shroomy, glad you made it safe and sound.  Best of luck settling in, enjoy the ride.

Do you like Chinese food? Welcome, Mushroomy