Yes Chinese drink, mostly just the men, few ladies here drink alchol of any kind, or if they do in strict moderation.

There are many many different kinds of Chinese beers, Tsing Tao (pronounced Ching Dao, the name used the old Wade Gile's system o pronunciation. There are over 200 brweries in China.

Most of the most of the beers are lager type beers. There are joint ventures with Budweiser, Fosters, Steinlager, Heineken etc etc. The Budweiser is even worse than the Bud in the US, better off just pouting into a urinal and cut out the middle man!

There are even some shady operations producing fake's of the international brands. It is something when the fake beer tastes better than the real stuff, particularly true of Bud and Heinekan.

Chinese rarely drink in what we would call a pub as a pub is a western concept but bars are making a huge appearance. There is one street near my drinking hole 'The Blarney Stone' which is just bar after bar after bar....... Very busy as younger Chinese like to go there on the weekend in particular.

There are many ex-pat style pubs and bars in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and they are now attracting more locals.

The Chinese actually prefer to eat and drink not drink and eat so most drinking is done in resteraunts. Eating togehter is a very big social thing here. I have tried explaining the UK type pub culture and why I like to just drink, meet friends, play music and not always eat to my wife who is Chinese but she cannot grasp the cultural ramifications of me needing a visit to a pub, but hell she puts up with it.

Apart from beer the Chinese like baijiu, a high alchohol spirit made from sorghum wheat. Leaves me belching all evening. Truly only for the dedicated drinker but at times I have to drink it when I am entertaining clients etc. You can get it with snake, scorpion and deer penis added to it. According to the Chinese traditional medicine doctors it is good for the libido but too much would only mean the dreaded 'droop'.

Wine is also made in China, but I stick to imported wine as the Chinese stuff often makes you want to gag.

And yes you can smoke in pubs, bars and resteraunts.

Dianavans comment is 99% true. Chinese, Japanese and many other Asians lack an enzyme which helps break down alchohol quicker, resulting in red faces, speedy drunkenness and the usual inability to stand upright and make complete sentences. But I have met some hard drinkers in my time in Asia.