"I don't have a drinking problem except when I can't get a drink" is the philosophy of American songwriter Tom Waits. The "problem" seems exacerbated when you are a student in the United States, where alcohol purchase and consumption are strictly regulated by state laws, school administrations and self-righteous classmates. Luckily, Beijing students do not have this problem; moreover, despite the easily available beer and hard liquor on university campuses, real drinking problems seem almost non-existent in Beijing schools.

I did not always think this way. My first week at university here, I was having hotpot with fellow teachers, when we got annoyed by a sophomore at the next table. After drinking 12 bottles of Yanjing beer, he made every effort to befriend us. He managed to break two glasses, spill beer and was almost thrown out of the establishment. Since I was new in Beijing, a drunk student did not surprise me, but my more seasoned colleagues were taken aback.

Beijing students can drink whenever they like. Beer and hard liquor are sold at low prices in on-campus supermarkets, restaurants and even dining halls. But I rarely see Chinese students drinking during the day, with the rare exceptions of a couple of beers for lunch and a few sips of baijiu in the cold lecture halls - to sustain the learning process during Beijing's stern winters.

Moreover, when night comes, whether it is Friday, Saturday or Thursday, you rarely see drunks on campus, or hear noise from wild debauchery in the dorms.

American college youth goes to enormous efforts to get wasted. Undergraduates in the US pay fortunes for fake IDs just to drink, throw up, look stupid and possibly end up in hospital with alcohol poisoning, after trying to swallow 21 shots for their 21st birthday - the legal drinking age in most states.

Meanwhile, Chinese students appear to drink moderately. Some of my students say they don't like the taste of alcohol. Others suggest they are only comfortable drinking with close friends. There is no need for wild parties designed for strangers to interact.

Above all, some of my Chinese students say they were brought up to be aware of the potential harm of alcohol, and they act rationally when they choose not to drink.

But I think this difference has nothing to do with upbringing, taste or comfort zones. How can somebody who is 18 - and it's their first time away from home - act rationally?

American youth are also taught that it is not good to booze excessively. To support the claim the state prohibits minors from drinking. Ironically, this turns drinking into a forbidden fruit and American students are dying to try it.

Chinese students, on the contrary, don't have that urge. The beer is not going anywhere from the college canteens, no matter how harmful it is according to the old folks. It's cheap and easily accessible, so there is no need to binge on it.

A few months after the sophomore incident (and not having seen anything like it since) I was even more convinced that Chinese students don't get drunk. One day, while having dinner with my colleagues at a different campus restaurant, I excused myself to go to the bathroom.

As I entered the facility, I gagged and retreated immediately. Both urinals were overflowing with fresh vomit, which was spilling onto the floor.

"It's rubbish that they don't drink to get drunk; damn right they do," I thought.

As I ran for safety, I almost bumped heads with somebody mumbling apologies and it was the same sophomore, with a mop in his hands, ready to clean up his mess.

Well, Chinese students in general don't have a problem with excessive drinking, even if this one does. If he continues his studies in the US, he should have no problems adjusting.

For China Daily