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I went to dinner with one of my exchange partners to a hot pot place in Global Harbor Mall. While it was very beef based I am not sure what parts of the cow I ate tonight. They did show the chefs slicing the meat in the window, I guess to encourages you to to come and to show the cleanliness of the place. It apparently worked, when we left there was a one hour wait and my exchange partner told me she has waited even longer to get into this hot pot place before. Interestingly enough, the Mao statue at ECNU now looks out over a haven of the ever expanding bourgeoisie capitalist system Chairman fought against all those years ago. I felt like this picture showed, quite visually, some of the conflicts of ideas present in modern China and the contradictions of a Communist Party & a People's Republic watching over, arguably, the capitalist system's greatest success, the lifting of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty. When I went to Global Harbor Mall to pick up some lunch I saw the return of Little Miss. China. From what I heard, it should be called Little Miss. Global Harbor because it is a marketing ploy by the mall. This performance was a bigger deal then the first one though and the little girl preforming seemed more comfortable with the whole thing then the girl I showed in my first Little Miss. China post. To be perfectly honest with you, I really don’t know what good baijiu is and in what ways it differs from bad baijiu (except I know that if you go blind it is bad baijiu) so this is going to be bit less of review and more of an overview of what I feel a foreign grocery store making a distinctively Chinese drink means. TESCO is a large British grocery store chain (that for some reason now goes by Victory Market around me even though most of the products still say TESCO) with a location in the Global Harbor Mall by campus. It is important to note that TESCO is a foreign grocery store, not an international grocery store, TESCO does not specialize in international products even though they themselves are an international company. Baijiu (白酒) is Chinese “white alcohol” distilled from sorghum. Even though beer is becoming more and more popular as the everyman’s beverage in China, baijiu is still widely drunk and is the official beverage of business dealings from the strictly legal, to the Chinese legal, to the totally illegal. The version I am trying is TESCO’s generic brand Baijiu, available for around 10RMB or 1.50USD. According to Wikipedia, it has a sauce fragrance which means it has an aftertaste that tastes remarkably like soy sauce. If I had to compare it to vodka, it is a bit more alcoholic on average, the TESCO brand one is about 56% alcohol, and is also usually much sharper than vodka. Typically it is drunk straight and warm, from small glasses. While it is not the usual method of drinking, I think baijiu would work quite well in a more savory cocktail, like a Bloody Marry; I have actually read on China Today (China’s largest English language newspaper) there is a thriving ex-patriot baijiu cocktail seen in China’s larger cities. In short, while baijiu is mostly drinkable and a useful thing to know how to drink if you want to do business in China I don't think I would make it my drink of choice in the United States. While I don’t believe that TESCO produces this stuff in-house it is interesting that they are willing to put their name to this product. Baijiu is not very popular outside of China and areas with large Chinese populations. It is unlikely that TESCO could convince the British or the Irish to pick up baijiu. I believe that this is a sign that TESCO wants to avoid becoming an international grocery store and just simply be another grocery store operating in China. With such rapid growth in the Chinese market in recent years, establishing a good reputation early may pay off big in the near future as consumers in China’s second and third tier cities get enough money to start demanding large western style supermarkets which, with their early entry into the Chinese market, might be TESCOs, or Victory Markets technically. Global Harbor is the rather large and upscale mall walking distance from campus. If you only speak English you will find it easy to get around since many of the stores are forign or are pretending to be forign with English langage names, signs, and/or menus. Global Harbor so has the Tesco (apparently now the Victory market) where I get snacks, essentials, and alcohol.
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AuthorI am a junior at Juniata College spending a year studying abroad at East China Normal University. Please feel free to join my on my journey to China and beyond. Archives
November 2021
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