Besides lines of green trees and a bustling crowd along Dongping River, there stands a 30-meter-high rice pot on the side of the road. Everyone knows there is the production base for Shiwan Baijiu (石湾玉冰烧), a kind of Chinese liquor, but few knows there lies a museum with “tastes” and “smells” - Lingnan Museum of Baijiu/Alcohol Culture.

Follow our steps today and find out “tastes” and “smells” tucked away in this museum.

Refreshing smell of rice

Walk into the Lingnan Museum of Baijiu/Alcohol Culture, you will be informed of a “special” rule – start your visit from the highest floor and go down one after another.

On the rooftop, you can overlook the winding Dongping River glistening with sunshine. When the elevator door opens, you will be surrounded by a burst of sweet rice smell – lingering in the air and keeping you intrigued. More than 100 tons of rice are cooked here every day.

Intriguing fragrance of fermentation

Come to the third floor, you’ve arrived Chen Taiji Winery. Smell of sweet rice is suddenly overwhelmed by rich fermented fragrance from the fermentation workshop. When rice is mixed with distillers yeast, fermentation process begins before high-quality Baijiu is produced.

Inside the workshop, there are many Baijiu masters working nonstop. They are skilled and collaborative - steaming rice, mixing distillers yeast, fermentation, distillation – everyone taking up his own role and coordinating as a team.

Full-on aroma of Baijiu

Shuttling between different parts of the museum, you will probably notice some neatly arranged Baijiu pots of all sizes, placed on the ground, on wooden shelves. Some of these pots date back from the late Qing Dynasty, Republic of China all the way to the 1950s and 1960s. Some scarce liquor is stored inside – different layers of smells and different traces of memories.

Rich flavor of cultural deposit

Apart from a visit to authentic Baijiu workshop and a 3D setting that entails the production process, the museum also incorporates a display of drinking vessels and kitchenware and cultural relics unearthed from Shiwan kilns since the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Tourists will also be guided to know about some related poems, allusions, drinking customs and tastes about Foshan Baijiu culture.

Green glazed pottery warm jug from Shiwan kiln in the Qing Dynasty

"Wu Nanshi Tang" dragon pattern pottery flower goblets from Shiwan kiln in the Qing Dynasty

Author | Jersey

Revisor | Jessica

Photo | Offical Wechat Account of "禅城旅游", 中国陶谷