Why do Chinese people love drinking hot water?
- For many outsiders, the Chinese love affair with hot water is perplexing – it is one of the most searched questions about Chinese people on Google
- The habit can be traced back to public health campaigns that encouraged it for health and hygiene reasons
The first time I rode the rails in China, I was caught off guard by the water dispenser.
Instead of the usual options for hot, cold and room temperature water, the machine on the train had only one button – for boiling hot water. That meant if you didn’t want to buy bottled water from the wandering food carts, the only option was to fill up a canteen with scalding water.
But everyone happily did it. Young, old, male, female, train staff, train passengers – people made their way to the hot water dispenser to claim their fill.
“In Vancouver, where I’m from, whenever my mom and her friends eat in a Western restaurant, they like to order hot water with lemon,” says Bernice Chan, senior writer with the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. “The waiters and waitresses call these drinks ‘Chinese martinis’.”
There is a general preference for hot water in China. Since the early 20th century, there have been public health campaigns encouraging the consumption of warm water.
