LEADERS used it to toast Richard Nixon, Kim Il-sung, Margaret Thatcher and Ho Chi Minh. Now, China's national liquor wants to conquer the world from its remote mountain base.
　　
Shanghai-listed Kweichow Moutai, maker of the fiery Maotai drink served at Chinese State banquets, is planning on spreading its wings internationally.

Company spirits have been lifted by a doubling of its stock price in the past year as investors poured in, regarding Maotai as a niche luxury good whose popularity will grow as Chinese become more affluent. Its bosses hope to find similar appeal by expanding abroad.

"We're planning on opening five or six offices overseas to introduce the product and Maotai culture to foreigners," company chairman Yuan Renguo said recently, sitting in company headquarters in the poor, remote southwestern province of Guizhou. "It is the national drink," he said in heavily accented Mandarin. "So in the future, Maotai will go out into the world." Though it traces its origins back two millennia, Maotai has been the drink of choice for generations of leaders.

Source:佚名