Chinese food habits are often surprise country visitors. Europeans who replace even coffee with iced coffee in the heat, are very surprised that Chinese prefer to drink plain hot water even during the hot summer. Why: taking care about health or just another Chinese oddity?
Chinese people learn to drink hot water since childhood. Even schoolchildren’s parents buy them a small thermos bottles so kids can drink heated water at any time. Therefore, it is not surprising that with the age they retain this good habit, and instead of Cola or sweet juice they often drink regular hot water. It is not surprising if you go to a business brunch or a romantic dinner with a Chinese and you will be offered a cup of warm water or a slightly heated juice.
Even every gas station is equipped with the special heater where you can get hot water for free. Equipment for supplying workers with boiling water appeared in the 50s of the last century. The Communist Party took care of the health of the workers in the factories. At the same time, branded red thermoses, which are still associate with China, have become popular.
Chinese are proud of how they take care of their health. They believe that hot or warm water can solve and prevent many problems and they drink it in such large quantities. On the contrary, they treat cold water negatively and believed it is quite harmful for health. It destroys your teeth and harm the stomach.
Even local doctors agree with this point and heat the water before use. At the hospital after taking a dozen of medical exams, do not be surprised when a doctor will tell you: “Just rest at home, drink plenty of hot water and everything will be okay.”
It is believed that hot water will cover most of diseases. Many Chinese prefer to give up pills and trust the Chinese traditional medicine that has been proven by centuries. Surprisingly, it works. It is difficult to understand the reason – if it is the miraculous power of hot water or just a placebo effect.
By the way, the same applies to food. Chinese doctors do not recommend to eat cold food to their patients, especially if they are already over their forty. Food should not be below room temperature. These recommendations are explained in a very interesting way. For a person far from medicine to understand this scheme, the human stomach is compared with a griddle on which fat is distributed in a thin layer. It is impossible to wash it off with cold food, but warm water and broths will cope with it. Therefore, for those who are follow the rule of hot water the digestive system works better and food is absorbed faster.
With the help of hot water many people even manage to lose a couple of kilograms, or even look younger. After all, everyone who cares about health, monitors his diet and drink warm water stays healthy for much longer and looks younger than his peers.
There is another plus for such a good habit. Europeans and other Westerners do not always drink bottled or filtered water and there are a lot of harmful bacteria in a tap water. Boiling helps kill germs, so even the initially unsafe water becomes healthier. By the way, it is possible that this was one of the main reasons why the water in China began to be heated.
In the 17-18 century in China there were many common diseases and epidemics - drinking boiled water was one of the ways to protect yourself from various infections. It is much better to drink boiled water and not be afraid of the consequences.
Another reason to regularly take a few sips of hot water - it helps to restore harmony with your body. Chinese believe that the balance of feminine and masculine energy is a pledge of normal well-being and harmonious relations with yourself. And cold water destroys this balance. To restore this harmony, they drink warm water. It works better than a meditation! It pacifies and allows you to turn yourself to a peaceful behavior.
here is also a very interesting traditional explanation for this habit, which have been almost forgotten over time. According to the one of the old legends, hot water saved one of the emperors. The heir to the throne was seriously ill and was actually on the verge of a death. And the only thing that helped him was the hot water.
And another point can be found in the historical records. There have been difficult times in Chinese history and there was not enough harvest to feed everyone. And one of the ways to escape from starvation was the hot water. It helped man to last for few days longer without a food. Later Tibetan monks began to use this method. They did this not to save their own lives, but to maintain their bodies during the long cleansing fasting.
Many tourists believe that Chinese drink a lot of hot water because of their love for tea. They think that the locals are so used to drinking hot tea, that they simply don’t like anything cold nowadays. But in fact the neighboring countries - Japan and Korea - they also love tea in the same way, but they do not enjoy drinking hot water.
Today Chinese don’t even ask themselves why they drink hot water. Many of them do it out of habit and this is especially true for the older generation. Chinese philosophy is simple: if you are sick, feel bad or just tired, drink hot water and everything will go away. And may be an example of smiling and healthy Chinese will inspire you to drink a glass of healthy warm water at least in the morning.
