The word “wine” gets rather loosely translated here – many Chinese “wines” are in fact spirits.

China’s craft-beer revolution, which kicked off in Shanghai and Beijing around 2010, has much more recently found its way to Shenzhen. Brew pubs and specialist craft beer bars are popping up all over the city, and even regular bars and cafes are starting to add a couple of Chinese craft beers to their taps.

Despite the rise of whisky, cocktails and craft beer, Shenzhen’s most popular tipple remains the cheap, lager-style beers popular all over China. Light and clean-tasting, they are designed to pair well with rich Chinese food. Most ubiquitous is Tsingtao (from Qingdao) and Blue Girl, a beer from Hong Kong.

China's vegetarian tradition goes back more than a millennium to the Taoist and Buddhist philosophers, including Confucius himself, who abstained from eating animals.