Aims: To understand drinking patterns, health status related to drinking and the level of unrecorded alcoholic beverage consumption for the general population living in five areas of China in 2001. Methods: By cluster sampling, 24 992 community residents aged 15 years or older were interviewed by trained psychiatrists using structured questionnaires provided by WHO. Results: The 1-year drinking rate was 59.0%, and the point prevalence rate of dependence was 3.8%. The average annual consumption of pure alcohol was 4.47 l. The 1-year morbidity from gastritis/ulcer in the whole sample was 7.9%, which associated nonlinearly to alcohol intake, and heart disease and cerebral infarction/cerebral haemorrhage showed V-shaped curve relationships. Conclusions: The rate of alcohol use was higher in men than in women, and the annual alcohol consumption per capita was higher than that in the 1990s in the selected areas. Alcohol consumption plays a role in the development of alcohol-related physical diseases.