When kids get older become adults and step into the society, alcohol is still an important part in their life. This is only my point of view and I'm not sure if it is right or not, I think Americans usually talk about business in a meeting room, or through interviews, but we usually talk business in restaurants or clubs (any kinds of clubs...). In the restaurant for instance, adults would like to sit around a big rounded table and order many expensive dishes even though they would not consume the food at all, but that is a necessary step to show your (if you want to talk business to others) sincerity. And alcohol is a significant procedure to success in business. In order to get a big contract, you really need to drunk yourself to the "death" and that's the way to get the other side happy. My father used to bring me to those adults parties sometimes when his business was still in fledgling, and the only thing I was thinking during the party is that I really admired their courage and how and why a person would damage their body like that... It was really crazy, drinking to the "death"...
There are three major types of Chinese alcohol, beer of course, yellow rice wine and white spirit. The white spirit really is a kind of alcohol that adults would like to drink in China, and in average it is about 40% alcohol. The highest one I have ever seen is 67%.... close to the industrialized alcohol... so crazy... I‘ve tried once and I drink about 1.3 pounds that night, really the most I can drink, and I only remembered the first hour of that party... It took me about two days to get my body back to the right track...
These are only the parts I have experienced in the past 20 years, it may seem a little subjective but I think that's what most normal Chinese people would experience, just like me.
