If you have been to China or you have some Chinese friends, you may have noticed that, among other significant culture differences and particular behaviours, they are also different in such a common activity as drinking water. The first time I realized of this was during my stay in Sweden, as my friend Ziyi drank a glass of hot water (directly from the kettle) before heading to the office. In my later visits to China I could realize it was a common thing in China, even in summer. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered water with my dinner in a restaurant in Beijing and I got a glass of hot water.

Why do they do it? If you ask them, you will get different explanations for it. Some of them are related to the health (they say hot water is healthier for the body, and also for the soul), and some others are a consequence of other practices they have (as they drink plenty of tea, they get used to hot drinks, and that includes the plain water).

I don’t buy any of those explanations, even though they make sense and could also be true. This type of special behaviours must have a simple and ancient reason, as many others explained in Marvin Harris’ “Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches“.

My idea is that they originally started to drink hot water because they learned about sterilization, and realized they had to apply high temperatures to the tap water to make it drinkable (i.e. without further health compications). When you are thirsty waiting for the water to be cold is a luxurious decision, and you probably opt for drinking it right away.

This is still valid and needed nowadays. The hostel where I stayed a couple of years ago in Beijing made it clear for the ignorant visitor that we should drink boiled water if we did not want to have a “bad time”. Nowadays, even in higher quality hotels, adapted to Western standards, they make it clear that the tap water is impotable, with an alarming sign next to the sink.