China's Heartiest Breakfast Starts with a Morning Drink!

This term might sound a bit unfamiliar, but if you search on Bilibili or Douyin, you'll find countless videos with hundreds of thousands or even millions of views—this leisurely morning meal featuring a few drinks and a table of dishes has quietly captivated many young people, who even travel to Hubei, Sichuan, or Chongqing specifically to experience it.

Morning drinks? Isn’t that just alcohol in the morning? What’s the big deal? Well, you’re missing the point. At the morning drink table, the "alcohol" is the least important part—a cheap bottle of everyday liquor is perfect, or even a few cups of loose spirits. The real stars are the dishes paired with the drinks!

Meat is a must. Start with a plate of braised beef to go with the drinks, then fire up a small hot pot and pile on hearty portions of brisket, pork trotters, or fatty duck. Carbs are essential too, from mixed noodles to hand-pulled noodles or a solid bowl of rice, with some stir-fried sides for variety. These are all homestyle dishes, but served in generous, bold, and deeply satisfying portions.

The breakfast is lavish yet homely, a common sight in many places. It’s no surprise it appeals to young people—what overworked commuter wouldn’t want to enjoy a slow, hearty meal at a cozy eatery?

Today, let’s take a look at this grand, unrestrained, and downright indulgent feast.

Jianli, Hubei: A City That Loves Morning Drinks

The tradition of "morning drinks" exists in many regions, especially along the Yangtze River—from Sichuan and Chongqing upstream to Wuhan, the hub of nine provinces, and even refined Shanghai. But the small city of Jianli in Jingzhou, Hubei, might just be the most devoted to the practice.

How many morning drink stalls are there in Jianli? Even locals might struggle to answer. The wildest estimate is 4,000; the most conservative, over 1,000. Either way, for a county-level city with just over a million people, that’s a staggering number.

Jianli’s mornings are always steeped in the aromas of liquor and meat.

Some stalls specialize in beef—small pots brimming with brisket, tripe, tendon, and bones, either braised or stewed in advance, then simmered further at the table until tender. Paired with a shot of baijiu, it’s the perfect way to shake off the morning chill.

Others excel in marinated dishes: duck, eggs, pork trotters, tofu skin, even fried fish soaked in brine, combining crispiness with deep flavor—ideal for sipping alongside drinks.

Some stalls focus on offal, like fresh chitterlings and blood tofu, best enjoyed with noodles. After rich, spicy meat dishes, a bowl of noodles settles the stomach and caps off the meal perfectly.

At first glance, Jianli’s morning drink fare seems ordinary—typical drinking snacks found across Hubei. But one dish, the "earthen hotpot," has stolen the spotlight in countless videos.

Called a "hotpot," it’s more accurately a "fire bowl." A shallow dish holds burning alcohol, topped with a large ceramic bowl filled with cilantro, spices, sliced meat, meatballs, fried tofu, or even raw minced meat. As the alcohol burns, the ingredients heat up until boiling. Diners deftly scoop the meat, shaping it into crescent-shaped balls. Some stalls now use small iron pots instead, but the simplicity and satisfaction remain unchanged.

This "earthen hotpot" might be the ideal morning drink meal: cheap enough for breakfast, portioned just right to avoid overeating, and slow-cooked to match the leisurely pace of drinking and chatting.

Countless food bloggers flock to Jianli, and few leave disappointed. The city truly is surrounded by morning drink stalls—search "morning drinks" on a map, and you’ll find a slew of aptly named eateries. From dawn till dusk, the lively stalls mark the start of a busy day.

In Jianli, morning drinks are everywhere.

Why do Jianli locals love morning drinks so much? The answer might lie in geography.

From above, Jianli sits at a critical bend in the Yangtze River, where the waters shift from northwest to northeast, linking Yichang upstream and Wuhan downstream, facing the vast Dongting Lake across the river. Yueyang, on Dongting’s shores, is Hunan’s only Yangtze-adjacent city. This crossroads location made Jianli a hub of waterborne trade, and as many say, the dockworkers laboring day and night became the stalls’ regulars.

Nestled in the southern Jianghan Plain, bordering the Dongting Lake Plain, Jianli is a land of fish and rice, rich in local specialties like Jianli rice, Jingjiang duck, river crabs, and eels. In other words, with fertile plains and scattered lakes, finding top-notch drinking snacks is effortless for Jianli locals.

Along the Yangtze River, wherever there are docks, workers toil from dawn to dusk, relying on a hearty morning drink to fuel their day. After witnessing the morning drinking culture in the small town of Jianli, follow the mighty river’s flow and savor the aromas of food and liquor along its banks.

Wuhan | A Morning Drinking Scene "Scalded" into Existence

Wuhan locals call breakfast "guozao," and there’s even a saying that mixing hot dry noodles while riding a bicycle is an innate skill of Wuhan people. Just like their fiery personalities, rushing through breakfast is the norm. Yet, in this city straddling the Yangtze, leisurely morning drinking is also common. Dishes like shredded pork noodles, eel noodles, beef hotpot, and braised duck hotpot mirror Jianli’s morning drinking fare—or simply pair Wuhan’s most common breakfast snacks like hot dry noodles or doupi (bean skin) with liquor. For those unaccustomed to strong liquor in the morning, a local favorite is "egg wine": eggs stirred into sweet fermented rice wine, refreshing and warming.

Wuhan locals love rice noodles, and "sheng tang" (scalded) noodles are a morning drinking staple. "Sheng tang" involves thinly sliced meat briefly scalded in boiling broth—just a few flips by a skilled vendor, as overcooking toughens the meat. Freshly scalded meat is piled atop steaming noodles, garnished with scallions, chili oil, pepper, and a handful of fragrant cilantro. A bowl of scalded beef noodles reigns supreme at morning drinking stalls.

Sichuan-Chongqing | Douhua Rice for the Perfect Drink Pairing

Moving upstream along the Yangtze to Sichuan and Chongqing, morning drinking thrives alongside bustling docks. Take Chongqing: its mountainous terrain means goods from the hills must be carried to the river by hand, making the city a hub of land and water transport. Exhausted from their journeys, workers unloading cargo at dawn often turn to liquor for relief and a bowl of douhua (tofu pudding) rice for sustenance.

Douhua rice is a Sichuan-Chongqing classic: a bowl of tender tofu pudding over soybean sprouts, paired with a dipping sauce of fermented bean paste, chili oil, and lard. It complements liquor or rice alike. This humble "fast food" was once a favorite among laborers—porters, muleteers, and boat trackers.

Shanghai | Mutton and Aged Wine

Even in Shanghai, often stereotyped as having "the lowest alcohol tolerance in China," morning drinking exists. Jiangnan’s damp winters and sweltering summers make a morning drink a practical choice—warming in winter, refreshing in summer before the heat peaks. In the novel *Blossoms*, worker Xiao Mao soothes his weary stomach with huangjiu (yellow wine) after grueling labor.

Old-school Shanghainese favor mutton: braised in the northern districts (Jiading, Baoshan, Chongming), or boiled and sliced in the south (Songjiang, Fengxian, Jinshan). A morning drink, a plate of mutton, and good company offer a hidden respite in this global metropolis. As young workers age into "uncles," the ritual of "aged wine and mutton" endures.

The Yangtze, a "golden waterway," links dock towns upstream and down, fostering communities of night-shift workers and early risers. A shot of liquor to unwind and local dishes to refuel become necessities.

Take Wuhan’s Han Zheng Street, once a famed national hub for small goods. At dawn, porters rush to move cargo before crowds arrive. As shops open and others start their day, the porters relax at roadside stalls with beef hotpot and a shot of liquor. Dockyards and the "Henan sheds" near the Jingguang Railway are worker hubs—and morning drinking spots.

No fixed rules, no set dishes, even the liquor varies: local grain-brewed "farm wine," DIY medicinal infusions, or the huangjiu popular downstream. Morning drinking flows with the Yangtze, taking root wherever it goes.

Nationwide, Morning Drinking Is More Common Than You Think

Some say night-shift workers birthed morning drinking, limiting it to cities. There’s truth here—but not the whole story. Far from the Yangtze’s docks, morning drinking customs persist across China, hinting at older origins for "dawn libations."

In Foshan, Guangdong’s culinary capital, the saying "red rice wine with congee" has long held sway. Red rice wine, a fermented bean-aroma liquor made from red and white rice, is a Cantonese favorite—especially in Shunde, the soul of Cantonese cuisine.

Less potent than famous strong liquors, red rice wine’s savory depth pairs perfectly with dim sum staples like steamed ribs, congee, and rice rolls. Locals linger over it, chatting until noon.

Luxurious, piping-hot, and flavorful congee.

Further north, Shandong is another online hotspot for morning drinking—but unlike the riverside cities, its vibe is rustic.

As Zheng Banqiao wrote in *Weixian Bamboo Branch Lyrics*: "The market gates close as crowds disperse, lanterns glow at dusk." For centuries, market days have been Shandong’s joy—and for its drink-loving people, what better way to start a dawn market than with a toast?

Vendors display their morning-braised beef and lamb on the stalls, weighing and pricing them. Customers pick their preferred cuts, and the vendors swiftly slice, weigh, and toss in handfuls of scallions and cilantro for seasoning. Some vendors set up a large pot to prepare smoked tofu—three pieces for a yuan, and three yuan buys a full plate. Paired with a serving of beef or lamb priced at over ten yuan, it’s enough to savor all morning. At the fairs in Jiaodong, seafood sometimes makes an appearance. Diners select a basin of seafood for the vendor to cook, with stewed pancakes soaked in the broth as a staple. The breakfast takes on the grandeur of lunch, arguably the most down-to-earth seafood buffet.

At Shandong’s morning markets, many people bring their families to enjoy the morning wine.

Northeasterners also partake in morning wine, with side dishes like cold salads and smoked meats—nothing extravagant. The older generation favors strong liquor like *shaodaozi*, while some younger folks opt for a morning beer—after all, Harbin is China’s beer capital. In rural areas of Jiangxi, Anhui, and Jiangsu, there was once a winter-brewing tradition, where families made rice wine during the farming off-season. Come morning, this cup of rice wine became a comforting prelude to a day’s labor.

For modern urbanites accustomed to city rhythms, morning wine is certainly a novelty.

In the past, it was the exclusive remedy for dockworkers and farmers to ease fatigue. Now, as manual labor dwindles along the Yangtze River and traditional farming declines, the morning wine crowd has shifted from the young and strong to idle elders. With no rush to work or school and limited entertainment options, they have endless time to spare. In stories and articles about morning wine, the elderly are its steadfast patrons. If earlier generations drank to unwind and sleep better, today’s elders do it for the love of chatting, leisure, and the drink itself.

For contemporary people, the trending morning wine offers a precious sense of ease. Its culinary philosophy and lifestyle, rooted in the working class, embody a lack of haste, no competition, and affordability without skimping.

Perhaps the young who envy morning wine, living in cities dictated by subway schedules and work deadlines, will never truly join the stalls’ ranks. But in this era of widespread anxiety, glimpsing the steaming morning wine scenes of smaller towns through screens provides rare mental relief and reconnects many with food’s purest joy—already invaluable.

In a fast-paced life, what could be happier than eating well?