Rob Bellinger in China: discovering the truly magical world of baijiu

When Rob Bellinger travelled to Fenyang City, 400 miles south-west of Beijing to visit Fenjiu and see how national Chinese spirit baijiu is made, little did he expect the master distiller to sing him an ancient poem nor set him an exam at the end of the press trip to see if he’d been paying attention. The spirit is truly unique and ubiquitous in China with 6,000 distilleries making 10 billion litres a year – only 1% of which makes it out of the country. Baijiu holds a place in tradition within Chinese business, family life, and the culture woven into its history, but aspires to appeal to a younger, more cosmopolitan market. Bellinger reports on how Fenjiu intends to do that.