7 weeks ago I moved from Brisbane Australia, to Beijing China. And I've drunk more in the last 7 weeks here in Beijing than in the last 12 months in Brisbane.

I'm not a big drinker.

I thought I'd grown out of it after uni and until recently, I can't remember the last time I woke up with a hang over.  Many people in my social circle in Brisbane don't drink and the ones that do might have a couple of beers or an occasional scotch and then be done.  No one gets hammered, and it's never an issue if you choose a lemon lime & bitters over a scotch & dry.  On occasions when I felt like a drink, I was safe in the knowledge that no one was going to pressure me into having another or ordering rounds.

All this was turned on it's head when at the start of December I packed my bags and jumped on a plane to Beijng.

Alcohol is seriously cheap here, and very available - you can buy in from a 7/11 of which there are many.  A 600ml full strength beer costs 60c.  If you're at a restaurant or pub, juice & soft drinks are normally the same price as a tap beer... so you might as well just have a beer, right? 

... and most people do.  Or at least most of the people that I'm spending time with do.  And for the last 7 weeks I've been one of them, and I don't like it.  When I went out a few nights ago with some friends and decided to start dropping shots of vodka in our beers I new I was going to wake up the next morning feeling sore, but at the time I thought, "so what? when is the last time you did this Nick?".

The next day I did wake up feeling shit and I decided that experience didn't justify needing to spend 1/2 a day in bed.  

The next couple of months will be me building a new social circle and I'm going to try and do it without alcohol and see what happens.

A couple of nights ago I chose not to drink (day 1) and a woman I was with looked at me with surprise and said "oh do you not drink?".  The idea of just taking a night off seemed to catch her by surprise.

There's nothing I like more than a good social experiement so I'm keen to see where this goes...