Yanjing Beer, Delivered in Bottles by Bicycle.

Yanjing is the largest beer producer in China. If you made a single beer for everyone in Beijing each day, that would be 22 million bottles of beer a day. Not that Yanjing does that, but according to the wikipedia, "The company has approximately 20,000 employees, and is one of the largest beer manufacturers in China. They produced 3.11 million tons of beer in 2005 alone. "

I have been noticing a phenomena around town, especially in the Hutong, and other areas with very narrow streets. Bicycles are out in numbers delivering large amounts of beer, most of it Yanjing. In the store across the street from my new hotel, I noticed the bottles of Nanjing were all pretty significantly abraded in the widest part of the bottle near the top. I am pretty sure this is from delivering it by bike, especially since I've never seen it delivered any other way.

Now – I am thinking that if you make 3.11 million tons of beer a year, and you deliver it by bicycle, you'll need at least 20,000 employees. They also deliver it by plane I here, to your seat. And to some other countries in the world.

I'll see if I can get a photo of a bike loaded with beer.