@Lisa
If you’re looking at hard alcohol, it’s also depending on what brand at what establishment. Lots of Chinese clubs serve absolutely real hard liquor. In fact, Chivas mentioned at one point they sold more Chivas at Babi (the original) in Chengdu per square meter than any other establishment in the world….
Generally you’ll see clubs pushing a specific brand – with advertisements etc for that brand around the club. If you want the safest bet, go with that brand. 88 for example has a Jack Daniels partnership, their Jack is real – I drink a lot of Jack, and have drank a lot of Jack there, so know that it’s absolutely the case 😀 Skyy vodka had a few club connections here at one point trying to break the market, Absolut as well, just see what they’re promoting and more than likely that company has a partnership with them.
If you drink a specific type of liquor and are worried about fake, ask to buy a shot or short glass first separately – and taste it straight/smell it to make sure it’s what it *should* be. Fake liquor here usually also doesn’t go with the FIRST bottle unless they don’t have any authentic stuff going around, and they tend to serve fake liquor more with people who order stacks of tea (since it’s mixed, they figure, you wont notice). I’ve had very little problems with getting fake liquor (I almost exclusively order the same brands and drink straight/on the rocks) here, and when you get the fake stuff you can usually SMELL it more than you can taste it…
If you go to much lower end clubs you’ll likely get fake stuff – they also probably have beer partnerships more-so than hard liquor partnerships so tables will be covered in dozens rather than bottles of whatever. RE: Wine….good luck with that, most of the “foreign” brands of red/white here are “fake” in that they’re IMPORT, but import by Chinese companies who push it out and bring it back in just to get the import stamp, while the companies themselves are just domestic companies essentially cheating the masses…this is true for most of the wines you’ll find at large supermarkets too.
Pre-gaming/pre-drinking is ALWAYS a good idea, anywhere, any time. 😀