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Regional cuisines
The traditional classification is the 八大菜系, the eight great cuisines, formalised in the Qing dynasty. It is a simplification — every…
Food & drink
"Chinese food" is not a cuisine — it is a dozen of them, and the version you know abroad is mostly Cantonese filtered through emigration. This section maps the real thing region by region and tells you exactly what to say to get it.
How to order
The five things to know 1. Dishes are shared. A menu is designed for a table ordering several plates to the middle. Order roughly one dish…
Street food
Breakfast is the point The best street food in China is served between 06:00 and 10:00, not at night. Night markets exist and are fun, but…
Hotpot
How it works A pot of simmering broth sits in a recess in the table, over an induction or gas ring. You order raw ingredients, which arrive…
Vegetarian & vegan
The good news and the bad news Good: China has a serious vegetarian tradition rooted in Mahayana Buddhism, going back over a millennium.…
Drinks, beer & baijiu
Baijiu 白酒 — "white spirit" — is distilled from sorghum and other grains, bottled at 40–60% ABV, and consumed in greater volume than any…