I'm glad that you avoided the dreaded "Essence of Snake" which seems to be often offered to visitors in that region of China. While they do consider it an honor to be offered to drink these bodily snake fluids, I've known some fellow co-workers who became quite sick after doing so, and we were all advised to avoid this on any future visits. Aside from the grossness factor of it all, I think that if one had an injury in their mouth that could allow access to your bloodstream in any way, some bit of that venom and/or blood could get into yours - it is possible this is what happened to my coworker.
But mainly, it is just gross. Some of the Chinese people understand that this seems like a very unpleasant thing to most westerners and the understand/take no offense if the offer is declined. But, some less worldly Chinese people seem to take it as a personal insult if you decline. Oh well.
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I'm glad that you avoided the dreaded "Essence of Snake" which seems to be often offered to visitors in that region of China. While they do consider it an honor to be offered to drink these bodily snake fluids, I've known some fellow co-workers who became quite sick after doing so, and we were all advised to avoid this on any future visits. Aside from the grossness factor of it all, I think that if one had an injury in their mouth that could allow access to your bloodstream in any way, some bit of that venom and/or blood could get into yours - it is possible this is what happened to my coworker.
But mainly, it is just gross. Some of the Chinese people understand that this seems like a very unpleasant thing to most westerners and the understand/take no offense if the offer is declined. But, some less worldly Chinese people seem to take it as a personal insult if you decline. Oh well.