Annual Shaoxing wine-making

A worker offers prayers during a ceremony prior to the start of the annual Shaoxing wine-making for the lunar calendar winter solstice at a Shaoxing winery, in Shaoxing, east China’s Zhejiang province.
Photograph by: STR, AFP/Getty Images

Chinese workers start the annual Shaoxing wine-making for the lunar calendar winter solstice at a Shaoxing winery, in Shaoxing, east China’s Zhejiang province. Shaoxing wine is one of the most famous varieties of Huangjiu, or traditional Chinese fermented rice wine, and been in production since the imperial days, and large quantities are stored in the classic Shaoxing wine containers over long periods of time. Shaoxing wines are now exported and sold as vintage wines in may countries.