Abstract
One fateful day in ancient Egypt (or perhaps China), a grain storage pit accidentally filled with warm water and fermentation occurred. A brave soul tasted this nasty concoction, felt the world's first beer buzz, and the rest is history. While the Chinese were some of the world's first distillers, they chose to take the path of rice wines and other alcoholic beverages; therefore, the magic of Beer in China is only a recent phenomenon. The first generation of breweries arrived as the Western Powers were laying claim to sections of China under various treaty arrangements. The city of Harbin, under Russian influence, opened China's first brewery in 1900. China's current largest exporter and most famous brand of beer, Qingdao, was founded in the German treaty port of Qingdao in 1903. The Budweiser's manufacturer: Annheuser-Busch won in June the battle against his rival, SABMiller, making the first big repurchase operation in China. Annheuser-Busch took control of Harbin Brewery (the oldest brewering group in China), with the first takeover bid leaded by a foreign group in PRC. The operation cost for Annheuser-Busch is about 635 million Euros.
