Meanwhile down South…

I would be remiss not to mention a couple articles from earlier this year, covering the growing beer scene in Shanghai:

Beer in China: Shanghai hops ahead of the (six) pack
Shanghai Prime For A Premium “Beer Revolution”

I don’t know if I personally agree with the comments that “the beer scene in Beijing is much better developed [than Shanghai]”, or that it’s necessarily a good thing for locals to ganbei (“bottoms up”) one bottle after another of a rich, heavy, high-alcohol imperial stout. But overall, some good signs for the future.