Many drinking customs which have been formed since ancient times vividly reflect China's wine culture.
Early in the Xia and Shang dynasties (c. 21 st- I l th century BC), wine was a necessity when people offered sacrifices togods ortheir ancestors. Under the feudal system, people from different backgrounds used different wines and drinking vessels in sacrificial ceremonies. Even today people drink wine at ceremonies in memory of their ancestors or martyrs.
Attending a wedding ceremony is called drinking wedding wine in China. This shows that wine holds an important position at a wedding ceremony. Birthday parties and farewell parties are also great occasions for drinking China's national minorities have rich and colourful drinking customs.
At the various ceremonies held by the Tibetans or Mongolians, as the first procedure, the chief or a senior with a high 
reputation holds a wine cup up, dips his right ring finger into the wine and flicks the wine in the direction of the sky, then dips his finger again and flicks the wine in the direction of the ground, and finally flicks the wine towards the west. This means he is offering wine to the god of heaven, the god of the earth and his ancestors.
The Awa people keep an interesting drinking customs. The host drinks first before proposing a toast, thus disarming the guest's suspicions. And the guest drinks to the bottom to show his sincerity. The Yi people are very hospitable. They have a proverb that "the Han people attach importance to tea and we Yi people attach importance to wine. There is no dinner without wine." They sit on the ground in a circle when they have visitors. Then they drink from a single cup by turn. At festivals, Yi girls stand in front of their house or on the roadside with a wine jug in their hands. They invite passersby to suck the wine trom the jug with a wheat stalk. When the Yi people take an oath they drink "blood wine." At a ceremony they kill a cock and allow blood to drop into the wine The oath-takers drink the wine to the hottom to show they will never break their oath.
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