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Chinese reveal their recipe for long life: wine and cannabis
Telegraph UK ^ | 4/21/02 | Damien McElroy

Posted on 04/20/2002 5:37:47 PM PDT by LarryLied

HIGH in the hills of a remote part of southern China, the villagers claim to have discovered the secret of long life: rice wine, drunk more or less all day long; snake wine; and a soup made from the oily seeds of the cannabis plant.

Bama county is so cut off by the hills that surround it that the motor car has yet to penetrate. It has a population of just over 300,000, yet it has 73 centenarians, one of the highest ratios in the world.

Scores more nonagenarians display the carefree air of people who know their time is not yet up, while octogenarians toil under the Chinese burden of deferring to their elders.

Villages such as Bapin are a six-hour drive from Nanning, the capital of Guangxi Zhuang region, followed by a two-hour hike along a rocky path. They are - for now, at least - remote from the cares of the modern world.

The local government, though, is keen to capitalise on Bama's growing reputation for longevity and tranquillity. To the dismay of residents, it has drawn up plans for a China Longevity Tour, aimed at attracting tourists to the region from across the nation.

In the town of Fenghuang, Ye Kaiyuan, the son-in-law of Xiao Jin, a 99-year-old Bapin resident, hates the thought of his area becoming a tourist attraction.

"There are too many tourists and government officials visiting here already," he says. "People like granny have become like something in the zoo - stared at, shouted at and poked at."

Ms Xiao, a veteran of the communist revolutionaries' Long March, is a model of geriatric rude health. Her life has proved almost as epic as that of the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, whom she remembers as a comrade-in-arms.

"I fought with him in 1927 in the battle of Baisi as part of the Eighth Route Army," she recalls.

Today, sloshing rice wine from her glazed bowl, which is filled at 8am and continually replenished until she retires at nightfall, Ms Xiao demands that visitors match her glass for glass.

"I drink this wine every day - at least two glasses," she says with a wink. "It keeps me as healthy and well as you young people."

Another staple of the local diet is houmayou - soup that is made with oils from hemp seeds and is traditionally eaten twice a day.

The oldest villager in Bapin - at a sprightly 104 - is Xiao Yuanying. She is very proud that she still has three teeth with which to chew. She swears by drinks such as rice and snake wine - bottled with real snakes preserved in the alcohol - that keep her going.

"I've never been to a doctor, you know," says the elder Ms Xiao. "I worked in the rice paddies until I was 91. Now I leave that to my son and daughter."

Most of the centenarians in Bama county remain active. Some help on the farm or assist with household chores. A few hardy men hunt or dabble in archery. Those with their wits about them play mahjong and chess and enjoy calligraphy and singing.

Wei Puming, 102, is renowned as a hunter, while Huang Jiaxiang, 103, weaves bamboo that sells well in the local market. Three centenarian sisters, Lu Dihua, Lu Dimei and Lu Dixiao, are said to be models of self-reliance - refusing relatives' pleas for them to slow down in their twilight years.

Bama sits at an altitude of 4,500 feet, and the still, clear air and clean water of the Paiyang river also help to prolong life, says Professor Xiao Zhenyu, a senior fellow at the Old Age Science Research Centre in Beijing.

"Villagers lead harmonious lives," he says. "Sometimes there are four or five generations under one roof, and disputes are rare among neighbours. They normally labour until old age, and even centenarians can be seen working in the hills. Locals also take an unusually serene view of death - taking it in their stride."

Ultimately, however, he believes that it is the unusual - to Western eyes - diet that puts Bama county at the top of China's longevity league.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cannabis; china; chinastuff; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; oenology; wine; wodlist
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1 posted on 04/20/2002 5:37:48 PM PDT by LarryLied
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To: *China stuff;*WOD_list
index bump
2 posted on 04/20/2002 5:41:34 PM PDT by Fish out of Water
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To: LarryLied
"Drinking wine, spo-dee-oh-dee."
3 posted on 04/20/2002 5:42:45 PM PDT by billorites
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To: LarryLied
Deng Xiaoping biography
4 posted on 04/20/2002 5:47:49 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
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>I>HIGH in the hills of a remote part of southern China, the villagers claim to have discovered the secret of long life: rice wine, drunk more or less all day long; snake wine; and a soup made from the oily seeds of the cannabis plant.

Such life is long but what is it worth?

5 posted on 04/20/2002 5:53:48 PM PDT by TopQuark
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To: LarryLied
Drunk and stoned. Living the vida loca....Commie/commune style. 100+ and three teeth to show for it.

Ahhhhhhhhh! The virtues of the Socialist life!

"Come on, Comrades! Vote Dim and you, too, can be be just like us!"

6 posted on 04/20/2002 6:04:39 PM PDT by Thumper1960
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To: LarryLied
kewl!
7 posted on 04/20/2002 6:05:32 PM PDT by breakem
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To: LarryLied
So does this mean that all this time that I've been forcing down a cup of green tea every single day was for naught?

I thought that's how the Chinese lived so long.

8 posted on 04/20/2002 6:08:28 PM PDT by GiovannaNicoletta
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To: LarryLied
They aren't really all that old, they just look that way from the life they've led!
9 posted on 04/20/2002 6:10:02 PM PDT by Mahone
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To: LarryLied, al b., rudder
hmmm.
10 posted on 04/20/2002 6:20:54 PM PDT by a history buff
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To: LarryLied
Bama county is so cut off by the hills that surround it that the motor car has yet to penetrate.

..but Southern Man don't need them around anyhow.

11 posted on 04/20/2002 6:30:22 PM PDT by ctonious
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To: LarryLied
I'm gonna stop off and pick up ol' A+Bert and we're gonna go off to Shangra La.

They's po', but they's good peeple!

12 posted on 04/20/2002 6:55:21 PM PDT by the gillman@blacklagoon.com
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To: the gillman@blacklagoon.com
I bet he is there already. No wonder on one could find A+bert.
13 posted on 04/20/2002 6:58:32 PM PDT by LarryLied
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To: LarryLied
I was hoping to get an explanation of how the human liver could accomodate this much alchohol over such an extended time. Is it something about 'rice' wine that does not pickle the liver as nearly all other forms of grain alchohol seem to do? I'm intrigued.

If these fools would cut their drinking in half they'd probably live much longer. Their longevity is no doubt genetic, not due to diet. Doesn't sound like they have much stress in their lives either and that always helps.

14 posted on 04/20/2002 7:28:29 PM PDT by mercy
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To: ctonious
..but Southern Man don't need them around anyhow.

Southern man better keep your head,
don't forget, what your good book says....
15 posted on 04/20/2002 7:28:35 PM PDT by AdA$tra
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To: LarryLied
A+Bert will be easy to find, he'll be the one with the rice wine I.V. bag!
16 posted on 04/20/2002 7:41:16 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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To: LarryLied
Americans are quickly catching up to the Chinese with respect to longevity. We now have some 40,000 centarians in the U.S. and by 2030, America will have one million centarians and most of them are already in their 70s today!

That said, I do believe that simple living and responsible consumption of alcohol have a lot to do with living a long life.

17 posted on 04/20/2002 7:49:49 PM PDT by SamAdams76
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To: SamAdams76
We have parents and their children on Social Security now. Looks like we could have three generations collecting a government check soon (probably are some already).

We all better get off FR and back to work. This is going to cost us a bundle.

18 posted on 04/20/2002 8:44:39 PM PDT by LarryLied
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

Comment #20 Removed by Moderator


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