Tea

• Tea has been a vital part of Chinese culture for thousands of years. Chinese tea includes black tea as well as green, white, oolong, compressed and flavored varieties. Tea is a common accompaniment to a Chinese meal, with its own complicated rules of etiquette. For example, a host should never position a teapot so that its spout is pointing toward a guest; this could be interpreted as a signal that the host wants the guest to leave.

Wine

• Unlike Western wines, many Chinese wines are made from grains such as millet or rice. Grape wines do exist, but grain-based wine, or huangjiu, is more prominent. There are many different varieties of traditional Chinese wine, including the distinctive Shaoxing wine, which gets its characteristic red color from its yeast. Jiu niang is a type of unfiltered fermented rice sometimes served with grains of rice in it. It is relatively low in alcohol and has a mild, sweet flavor.

Liquor

• One of China's most famous distilled alcoholic beverages is baiju, a drink made from millet, sorghum or other grains. It is high in alcohol, with a potency ranging from 35 percent alcohol by volume to over 50 percent. Baiju can have a powerful taste and strong aroma and cause a rough burn on the palate. A Chinese banquet wouldn't be complete without a series of increasingly raucous toasts of high-alcohol baiju.

Beer

• Although beer has been brewed in China throughout its history, modern Chinese beers are the result of a tradition only around 100 years old. European immigrants set up breweries in China around the turn of the century; today, German-style lagers are among China's most popular beers. Nutty dark beers originate from the plains of Xinjiang in western China.