A half-litre bottle of Wuliangye, a famed Chinese liquor, known as “baijiu”, was auctioned for a record price of 880,000 yuan (about 108,508 U.S.dollars).

The baijiu came from a vat that had been stored for 90 years, while the vat itself has been used since the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

The buyer refused to be identified, said Liang Guoxing, chairman of Yinji Trading Development (Shenzhen) Co. Ltd., organizer of the auction, which was held recently in Shenzhen, a boomtown near Hong Kong.

China has a long tradition of serving its unique clear liquor in small shot glass that are often gulped all at once at the dinner table. As clear as vodka baijiu has a taste all unto itself. Wuliangye and Maotai, both produced in Guizhou Province, in southwest China, are the two most famous brands which Chinese leaders use to toast distinguished guests at state banquets.

The Wuliangye brand known literally as ‘five-crop’ brand is made by distilling two types of rice, wheat, corn and sorghum. The price paid for the bottle is a very lucky number as in Chinese eight is pronounced similar to the word for fortune. The auctioned bottle has an an alcohol content of 60 percent. Western spirit is usually 40 percent.

According to Liang, the money from the auctioned bottle will beused to finance the construction of three primary schools for a program called Project Hope. It’s designed to help children in thecountry’s poverty-hit areas to return to school.

Posted: 04|26|06 at 3:30 pm. Filed under: Auction News.