Bone up on your knowledge of local wines

While there will most definitely be a nice selection of spirits at the upcoming Shanghaiist Happy Hour, we can say with extreme confidence that one of them will not be Tiger Bone Wine, which the Shanghai Zoo, reportedly, has started to sell. Tiger Bone Wine -- wine that has shared a container with tiger bones -- is "thought by millions of people to be an elixir of life." Since ancient times, the Chinese have considered tiger bones as a "cure for joint pain and stiffness, back pain, rheumatism, and muscle spasms."

But, you know, tigers are an endangered species an all that. So, it's not really cool to kill them, or encourage the killing of them, just so you can add some calcium to your vino. A zoo should know better than to sell this stuff, even if, as they claim, the "bones come from tigers that have died from old age or from accidental causes." Take some Advil and call us in the morning.

And maybe we should all donate to the Shanghai Zoo. Seems they are hard up for money.

Photo from the Environmental Investigation Agency.