If the last words you ever hear in China are gan bei (dry glass) you'll know you went out in a spirited way. Drinking has been intimately intertwined in almost every aspect of local culture since the earliest times and any foreigner who has spent time in China will at some point be invited to a formal banquet and encounter the stamina-sapping bout of alcoholic toasts.

Banquets usually take place in an elegantly prepared restaurant private room, and begin with a round of introductions and much applause.

After the first wave of appetizers has been deposited on the Lazy Susan, the host gesticulates to the waiter to bring the first bottle of baijiu, white spirit made from maize, barley, oak or millet and which is strong enough to strip paint. Shot glasses are filled with the 60 percent-proof colorless liquid and then the games begin! The host will normally make the first toast to whoever is the guest of honor and then the group. Going down in rank the next most senior host makes a toast and so on down the line. With each toast it is important to show your glass is empty and all that remain are the alcoholic fumes curling in the air.

After the opening toast, it's open season. Confusion reigns, with waitresses bringing plate after plate of every imaginable aromatic dish. Chopsticks flash and gan beis follow one after the other, a staccato of empty glasses banging on the table top.

As a banquet can include anything up to a dozen courses, and each course is interrupted by a toast, prepare for a lot of standing up and sitting down. Just when you start getting comfortable, up you get. Cigarettes are offered between courses and the room takes on a convivial haze.

Refusing to drink means your host loses face big time, so, teetotalers here's a tip. Ask someone before the banquet to be your designated drinker. It will save you a lot of arguments and dodgy looks from your host. But the poor fellow will have to consume double the amount of alcohol, all in the name of protocol. As a non-drinker you will however be the subject of much jovial teasing as you wet your whistle with water or a soft drink.

Women generally will be required to drink along with their male colleagues, usually wine or beer, and where some hosts may be more lenient on the fairer sex, others will cajole the ladies into emptying their glasses at regular intervals. Expect sweaty brows and flushed cheeks.

But drinker or not you will need to make a toast at some point. Drinking to friendship is a good idea. Remember Chinese say, "If we are good friends, then bottoms up; if not, then just take a sip." So whatever you're drinking, throw it down your throat and show your empty glass to the people around you. This is not the time to sip.

Volumes of conversation rise in proportion to the alcohol intake and in less time than it takes to open a new bottle things can get very loud. Baijiu bottles empty effortlessly, along with red wine – often in larger glasses filled to the brim. As people continue to pour drinks down the hatch, coordination falters and with empty glasses come glassy eyes. The host berates anyone seeming to slacken off on the gan beis and the more boisterous the guests become, the more pleased the host appears.

What seems like an eternity has in fact lasted only two hours. The festivities are over suddenly and without warning. The host rises shakily to his feet, bids farewell and promptly marches out with his entourage in tow, all seemingly red faced and the worse for wear. It's not so much a drinking marathon but much more like a sprint. It may be so much easier to just stick a hosepipe down each guest's throat and pump them full of alcohol. But then you couldn't show your glass was empty. Raising a glass to other cultures always holds an element of unpredictability that is simultaneously eye-opening and informative. We live and learn – and you have to drink to that! Gan bei!