Food
'Chinese food' is a fiction; what exist are eight great regional cuisines, each with its own logic of climate, produce and history. Learn this map and every city you visit becomes a different country for your palate.
Not merely hot but layered — Sichuan pepper's tingle against chili, sugar and fermented bean paste: 'one dish, one style; a hundred dishes, a hundred flavours'. Mapo tofu and twice-cooked pork are the entrance exam.
Full guide →Fresh and pickled chilies without Sichuan's numbing curveball — chopped-pepper fish head, cured pork, and the chairman's braised belly. 'Fear no spice' is the entry ticket.
Full guide →Imperial knife-work and gentle sweetness: lion's-head meatballs, tofu carved to chrysanthemums — the technical foundation of Chinese state dinners.
Full guide →West Lake vinegar fish, longjing shrimp, beggar's chicken — seasonal, restrained, the culinary voice of the scholar-garden south.
Full guide →Steamed fish that tastes only of the sea, roast goose, and the morning universe of dim sum — the cuisine that conquered the world's Chinatowns.
Full guide →'One broth, ten transformations' — Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, oyster omelettes, and red rice-wine lees perfuming the coast.
Full guide →The oldest of the eight: imperial banquet techniques, sweet-and-sour carp flipped tail-up, and the stock-craft that fed Beijing's palaces.
Full guide coming soonMerchant-country cooking of bamboo, ham and famous fermentations — 'stinky' mandarin fish that smells like a dare and tastes like a triumph.
Full guide coming soonPrices, opening hours, transport and policy details can change at any time — always verify with official sources before you travel. China Travel Co is an independent travel guide with no affiliation to, or endorsement from, any government body.