Excerpt from an article about China by P.J. Rourke:
The Chinese like beer, wine, whiskey, and throat-searing maotai sorghum brandy, and serve them all at the same time. You don't sip your drink in China. It's gan bei ("bottoms up") no matter the size of the glass.
The Chinese like to laugh. After four or five gan bei toasts at a banquet in Shanghai, Mr. Lui, a real-estate developer, criticized America's involvement in Afghanistan.
I assumed we were talking politics and began mumbling nonsense that sounded like John Kerry.
"Don't talk politics," said Mr. Liu. "Talk price. What do you spend on the war in Afghanistan? Maybe $300 billion? Maybe $400 billion?"
In fact, the total, so far, is almost $900 billion.
"Afghanistan has a $20 billion GDP," said Mr. Liu. "Has your president never heard of a P/E ratio? Why didn't he buy the country from the Taliban?"