Comments on: Hóng Bāo Index

By: Joshua

Joshua — Mon, 28 May 2007 13:46:04 +0000

@ash: Thanks for the filling us in.

Good stuff? So-so. As far as I can tell, the quality of the liquor is inversely proportional to its cost. Cheap erguotou (55% - 500 ml - 7 RMB) is the most drinkable Chinese spirit I’ve found. The brandy isn’t bad, though. We used to buy the street hooch, but Vlad told us we might get Jake leg, so we quit.

By: ash

ash — Mon, 28 May 2007 10:29:45 +0000

QD gas is roughly 4.7rmb a liter.

It sounds like you are buying the ‘top end’ baijiu - you can get 35% stuff in little green bottles that resemble grenades for a mere 2.5rmb.

By: Life In Suzhou China Blog | Adventures of the Humanaught » Blog Archive » Girls of the English-language China Blogsphere

Sat, 05 May 2007 05:21:26 +0000

[...] couldn’t be squeezed out of me for all the Sumo hugs in Japan. Check out Emily’s recent Hóng Bāo Index [...]

By: Emily

Emily — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 23:17:07 +0000

JAM,
In China, bottled water is much safer than the stuff that comes out of the tap. At least, I hope so. Drinking unboiled, tap water is a sure way to end up in the bathroom for three days. Bottled water, priced between 2 and 3 RMB for a 1.5 liter bottle, is a much better alternative.

We don’t usually buy the bottled kind, though. We have the same environmental concerns that you do, and we also hate to run out of potable H2O. We filter our water to get out all of the heavy metals and chemicals. Then we boil it to kill the microbes. Our replaceable filter is supposed to last for a whole year and it cost us 80 RMB.

Since we are non-drivers, we don’t know how much petrol costs. Since it moves on a world market, I expect it’s pretty expensive. We will do some research and get back to you.