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Q: Is there a legal age limit for drinking alcohol in China?
12 years 30 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
In January of 2006, a limitation to "purchase" alcoholic drinks was passed at 18 years of age, but it is not enforced at all. As to drinking, there is none enforced to my knowledge in China. In Hong Kong is 18 years of age, enforced.
There is one but noone cares... I've seen a lazy parent send his kid into the store to buy him a pack of smokes and a bottle the baijiu.
I've been here for 5yrs, and i've seen all sort of people drinking and never asked for their age! Some I know were 15 or 16, so I don't think they are strict with the age limit for foreigners!
There is a strange paradox in all this. In Australia where the legal age is 18 and is very strictly enforced in both licenced premises and sales locations, you can find a huge number of teenagers, some as young as 13-14 drinking or drunk on any given weekend. In China where no one seems to enforce the legal limit I can't recall seeing a young person drinking or drunk. Not saying it doesn't happen, It just doesn't seem to cause the social problems, volence and vandalism it does back home.
DaBen:
Of course if you say it's not allowed then it becomes the cool thing to do. So for a country that doesn't care then kids are wasting their money if they want to impress their friends.
Hugh.G.Rection:
This is also true of France and Germany, both nations where there is a legal age to buy and consume alcohol but where this is regularly bypassed by parents who teach their children how to enjoy alcohol. UK tried to copy this and we failed miserably, it appears getting blind drunk is too ingrained into our national psyche!
China has achieved, it appears, a similar outcome, albeit by drastically different methods.
in ningxia i saw age 17 year old signs for alchol venues.
YES ! You are no longer allowed to buy or consume alcohol after the age of 124
in china , the mazing place , you can sell cigarette and alcohol to children even under 5 as long as the child have money
the law says 18 and the law also says many things in china but i doubt if it's all applied properly
