Shanghainese business travellers to Beijing or other northern cities often fear entertaining clients who have a fondness for bai jiu - Chinese white spirit.
Unlike northerners who know how to handle their drink, Shanghainese find bai jiu too strong for their liking.
To them, it tastes like kerosene - a few gulps and that warm glow soon turns into an unpleasant fiery rush. Not, apparently, a drink to be savoured.
A Shanghai broker who often travels to Beijing on business, said: 'The worse thing is northerners love to gan bei [bottoms up]; when everyone gets jolly, you have to gan bei as well in order not to spoil the atmosphere.
'And when it gets to you - and it gets to you really fast - you feel nauseous; it's awful.' In Shanghai, tastes run to mild drinks - red and white wine or beer.
The trouble is bai jiu is about as strong as a spirit can get. The mildest contains about 30 per cent alcohol while the strongest tips the scales at about 60 per cent.
