You've been in China too long, or haven't been out of college long enough if the number of bottles one can drink actually matters. I mean the stuff is basically water anyway, so if you drain often enough there is practically no limit.

Now for the answer I give the Chinese when they ask.... ONE GOOD BEER. If you down four or twenty-four bottle of the always delicious nectar of the gods, it still only counts as one good beer. It's about enjoying the drink and the company in which are you sharing said drink, not how many and how fast you can pound them back. Plus putting a number to it, would make me admit I drink too much.

At least a 24 of Tsing Toa...with food more. What can I say, I am Canadian, but the Aussies have us beat I think...I know from experience!!
It's really funny drinking beer with the locals....after a 2 hour dinner of food and Gumbai's, they are toast. They are ready to go home to sleep and I am just getting started!!
I still say the locals drink like frat boys and just want to get as drunk as fast as they can.
Personally I can drink beer at a normal pace for 12 hours straight!!

There have been times when I've drunk so much I'm ashamed of myself the next day. And I'm not easily shamed! And yes, I did recently get out of college.

I'm Canadian too.I always drank beer and shots,Once after drinking all day , I went to a party and drank 23 beers and 23 shots, mind you I was toast, ended up taking my AMX sideways across train tracks at over 100mph, getting launched from hitting the tracks and having a train finish off my car,,,and the night before I put it away for the winter. I beat the impaired charge.
I never got a buzz on China beer and I started each morning with a cold one,why not the coffee sucked. The 52% rice wine that I tried was nasty.
@thedude, yes us canuks can drink if we want,, its in our heritage, its how we got our independance from the Brits,,just got drunk and went downtown and yelled at them, They couldn't take it, probably couldn't drink lke us and left us. The USA had to fight them, we just threw beer bottles at them.

I wish I could say the guy's name, but a fellow Canadian I know is the most astounding beer drinker of all time. I've seen him put back 10 beers in 21/1 hours and not be hammered. It's amazing. At this point, it's not even the alcohol but how you can still want to drink a beer after so many.

Well I'm Aussie so it's a balance between supply and demand. If the brewery can keep up we're ok.

How much can a westerner drink? That depends on where he/she comes from. The Paddies (Irish) are recognised World Champions but the Aussies can push us hard. I told this to a CHinese guy once and he plonked a bottle of rice wine on the table. (Mou Tai?) I finished the bottle in a short while then stood up and told him that it had made me thirsty so I was going to have some beers. His face was a mixture of disbelief and amazed respect. Erin go bragh.

The beer here is very weak as people say as long as you can pass out the water quick enough its easy to drink a lot, problem for me would be feeling there is too much liquid in my tummy when i stand up rather than drunk. Need some of the Chinese spirits, had afew nice ones around the country....some small restaurants have some nice flavoured ones along the counter, try them all before choosing.

If you dont like the baijiu the clear rice wine, its not so tasty at first but you can get used to it (buy a better quality one and see if it still tastes so bad)....... i do suggest you should all try Jing Jiu its usually in a small flat 125ml bottle with dark red label gold writing, the drink is brown and 35% costs around 9yuan I personally think it tates great.... Jing Jiu picture - http://www.2606888.com/pic/11416165023.jpg

One of my colleagues in Guilin was challenged by some of his students to drink shortly after the summer holiday began. Now "Ned" (not his real name) can drink quite a bit so he assumed that he would have no problem outdrinking these kids.

However, the way the "contest" worked was that Ned would drink, and ONE of the kids would drink until he could not drink anymore. Then the next kid, and then the next....

Ned was declared the "loser" even though he out drank 7 guys, the eighth one did not pass out. Naturally, they all shared the victory and told EVERYONE that "they" out drank the "big American".

What I never understood is if Ned knew that they would be taking turns or if he assumed that they all would be drinking at the same time...

I used to chug beers, one night after being out all night drinking with friends, (long ago  & don't try this at home, I'm a trained professional) as we were leaving there was still a full 64oz pitcher of draft. I downed it in about 7 seconds, made it home, got out of my girl friends car, and fell flat on my face.

 I like a beer, but it's filling and bloating, so I always get sick of drinking Chinese beer before I actually get drunk from it, because the percentage is so low.

i think my uncle could drink about 60 or more in his prime. 

 we need a beer smiley

The question I hate the most is 'Are you good at drinking?"

I can polish off my fair share but to openly brag or even talk about the total is childish to me. If I am with buddies, thats different, we can chat about it but when Chinese people ask me it seems a little wierd.

Last night I was at a dinner with 7 Chinese guys. My wife and two other wives were there also. The guys decided to introduce one of the guys to me as the best beer drinker who was way better than me. Now, I ask you, where does this type of introduction come from? I mean really?? Anyways, after easily disposing of him without much effort I was asked to gambei with one of them....3 times....then another guy stood up, 3 more, the the next guy stood up and 3 more....at that time I saw what was happening and put a stop to that stupidity. My wife tore them a new one for their childish behaviour as well. I guess they lost all of their collective faces....or possibly we did. Honestly, I don't give a rats ass anymore.