I don't smoke, so the cheap cigarettes are of no concern to me. As for beer, yeah, I like Liquan, the Guangxi beer, but most Chinese drink that Budweiser crap. If China has anything "going for it" now apart from jiaozi and cheap beer, I can't think of it! I still know married guys in China, they just stay there and whine about how their wives are nothing but a drain on the wallet. The smart guys divorced their Chinese wives and moved to SE-Asia.

Budweiser that is sold in China and HK, I recall, is brewed in Singapore under licence. It tastes ok, but is overpriced in my opinion. You know, I recently bought 270 600 ml bottles of Qingdao Sapphire brand beer, 3.6% alc by vol, 10 degrees P, for 450 rmb. It tastes fine, and is available from shops ad supermarkets at 3RMB a bottle.

Much cheaper drinking at home than at restaurants and bars. And safer too - no danger of getting into a fight with a drunken Chinese fellow customer or a Western/African/Russian nutter!