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Why only Chinese drink hot water? There's a reason why foreigners don't drink hot water

Why do only Chinese like to drink hot water? For most Chinese, drinking hot water is a familiar thing. A cup of hot water will be the first to relieve the headache fever, but in the eyes of people in other countries, this is a very unique habit, because they never drink the hot water directly.

During this year's two sessions, the picture of the attendants in the Great Hall of the people using hot water pots to renew hot water for the delegates flashed repeatedly in the TV lens. Some representatives make tea with hot water, while others drink water directly while it is hot. This phenomenon has aroused the curiosity of Western media and even become a news story.

For many Westerners, drinking hot water directly is an incredible thing. However, most Chinese think that the habit of Americans drinking ice water is also strange and unhealthy. Chinese old people even carry hot teapots with them when they travel. Their 'Chinese stomach' can't bear the cold water from the tap.

In fact, many Chinese don't know why they prefer hot water to cold water. Most people think that this preference is related to 'tradition' or 'cultural difference', the main reasons are as follows:

Tea culture in China

Some people think that the habit of drinking hot water originated from the tea culture with a long history.

The history of tea drinking in China can be traced back to ancient times, which makes Chinese families used to use boiled water (to make tea). But China's neighbors, such as Japan and South Korea, have a similar tea culture, but they are not keen on drinking hot water.

Health problems

In China, people believe that boiling water can largely eliminate bacteria in tap water. Some people think that this simple method of disinfection has spared the Chinese people from many major plagues in history, such as the black death. Even today, health regulation is still an urgent problem in many parts of the world.

Historical factors

There is a relatively new view on hot water drinking, which is related to historical background. In the 1950s, the Chinese government called on the whole people to drink hot water in consideration of health problems, and built many boiler houses in residential areas without conditions for boiling water. This is a habit inherited from the era of planned economy.

It is normal to drink hot water in Chinese restaurants, which is the same as drinking tap water in Western restaurants. Nowadays, many Chinese doctors encourage foreign people to have the habit of drinking hot water, especially in menstrual women, drinking hot water can effectively relieve abdominal discomfort.

The above is very short, right? If we don't think the question is clear, we've searched for some interesting answers, but it's almost the same. We found the following analysis very interesting, so we posted it. From Zhihu's response of "wind blowing Castile", but he didn't reply whether he agreed to the authorization when we published this part.

"Foreigners don't like hot water because of their long-term social and historical development.

Taking Europe as an example, Europe has experienced three major epidemics in its history, the first one was the plague of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, the second one was the black death during the western expedition of Mongolia, and the third one was the pandemic after the end of World War I. Among the three epidemics, the second is the most influential.

The prevalence of the black death in Europe has given birth to a series of systems that modern medicine relies on to fight against epidemics, such as the isolation system. But when it comes to the source of the black death, Europeans generally believe that the water is polluted. The fear of water comes from Europe's inadequate treatment of human and animal waste. The role of green manure has been recognized for a long time in traditional Chinese society. The manure is recycled and used in agriculture. Not in Europe.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the dark age of Europe came. This is not only the darkness of knowledge, but also the darkness of health. Originally, the urban drainage system built by the Roman Empire was completely abandoned, and human and animal waste and domestic garbage were randomly stacked on the street corner. Such obvious disgusting things naturally form people's fear of water. Although the development of modern medicine makes Europe realize that the understanding of black death in the past is wrong, as an important channel for the spread of infectious diseases, water source is still a very important standard for the evaluation of quality of life in the eyes of Europeans. Therefore, during the industrial revolution, Europe attached great importance to the development of water purification technology.

Another reason may be that the handicraft of European daily necessities was not developed, which led to the fact that the handicraft industry in medieval Europe could not develop the cups and pots that were just as handy as the porcelain in traditional Chinese society, so no one was willing to boil water. "

In a word, we have found many explanations, including Chinese and foreign ones. The core idea is that Europe is committed to developing water purification technology because of water related diseases such as the black death. China has not paid so much attention to water purification. After the liberation, in order to maintain health, China has vigorously advocated hot water drinking, which is also a relatively labor-saving method. In fact, tea culture is not all right. Japan also has tea culture, but in fact, Japan doesn't drink much hot water, and they mainly drink ice water.