So - here’s to you, my friend Dragon.
For the sake of journalism and independent investigation, I am now testing you Kaoling liquor.
Next to my laptop, there are two little bottles. Each containing 50 milliliters of your kaoliang liquor. A blue one, with a dolphin picture on it, which is prepared with deep sea water, retrieved from the deep blue sea, east of your beautiful island.
The other bottle has the color gold. It is also kaoliang liquor - which the Chinese seem to be fond of - but it is prepared with ordinary water.

Proost! we say in Holland. Cheers, in English. Ypa (according to Google Translate) in Russian, cincin in Italian, Gesundheit in German, à la vôtre in French.
Proost is also the word I taught you, my dear Dragon, and the participants to the first world mahjong championship, nine years ago in Tokyo. We had met there that morning, at breakfast. So many mahjong friends, from so many countries, were all looking for a table. Come, sit at our table, you invited us.
But first you had to run to your hotel chamber, and when you came back, you produced some nice mahjong rulers for my wife and me. “As a present.” I never played a single mahjong game without your rulers ever since.
And now, you sent me eighteen bottles of liquor.
Well, I am not particularly fond of liquor. So I am not sure what to say.
By now, I have sipped from both bottles, It’s liquor alright. The blue one, the deep sea one so to say, has a softer taste.
Perhaps I should mix it. But with what? Ordinary Dutch tap water seems hardly appropriate  to mix with water which came from 613 below sea level.
Another gulp then. By now, I prefer the blue one. I take a refill. Yep, the blue one definitely is better.
That world championship started with a welcoming party, where Kyoichiru Noguchi, the deplored CEO of the Mahjong Museum, acted as the host. He also was the stimulator and the organizer of this first world championship. As a matter of fact, I think he more or less sponsored the whole event himself.
I was granted the honor of bringing a special toast, since I was the representative of Mahjong News in Tokyo. I was very proud: right after the representatives of China (China! the homeland of mahjong!) and the USA (with it 350,000 members NMJL, who play some funny game with mahjong tiles; just kidding) -- there I stood.
What could I say? I decided to thank them for the three little Chinese words I had learned thanks to mahjong. Pung. Chow. Mahjong!
I gave them back one little word, and that was proost!
Dragon toasted with me, along with the others. And now, I say it again, with your Kaoliang liquor within reach: proost, Dragon!

Yeah, I definitely prefer the blue one. One last refill then.

Mini bottles of kaoliang liquor will be given away as extra prizes, coming weekend during the Cherry Blossom and Washizu in Holland Tournaments. There are bottles for the number 1, 2 and 3 players and for the last player who wins with chang kan (robbing the kong); the latter only in the Cherry Blossom Tournament.