Eat & Drink in China
Chinese Cuisine
Chinese is often regarded as the most gifted people in cooking delicious food. Chinese cuisines are extremely comprehensive and sophisticated in style, cooking technique, and taste. No tour to China is complete without trying delicious Chinese food. China's vast landmass has fostered unique regional cultures, given the diversity to the food styles. Over thousands years of cultural exchange between different Chinese areas, regional cuisines also gained influence from each other. Typically, Chinese dishes can be grouped into Four Great Chinese Cuisines, namely Cantonese Cuisine, Sichuan Cuisine, Shangdong Cuisine, and Jiangsu Cuisine. Each has its own subcategories. In general, Chinese food is prepared in bite size and served in various ready for direct picking and eating. A good Chinese dish must meet three basic criteria: presence, fragrance, and taste.
Restaurants in China
Chinese restaurants are normally noisy compared to western restaurants. However, noisy is considered lively in Chinese norm. It is the sign of a good restaurant, where guests are excited for the delicious food offered. Western restaurants are also commonly found in major cities, while a good western restaurant is normally associated with very high prices.
Chinese Drink
Chinese drink wine and spirit made of rice and broomcorn instead of potato and grape. Chinese alcohol has very special fragrance. Good wine could be smelled from a hundred meters away and the price could be ridiculously high.
Chinese drink tea as a culture with several thousands years of history. The way Chinese drink tea is completely different to the western way that milk and sugar are added. Just pour water in a tea pot or gai-wan (tea bowl with a cap) with desired amount of tea leaves. Wait for couple seconds and drink the water. There mare different species of tea trees in China. Famous teas are including Da-Hong-Pao, Dragon Well, Tie-Guan-Yin (or Iron Buddha), Mao-Jian, etc. Tea leaves are sold by quality. Average good quality tea leaves are sold at around 300 to 500 RMB for 500 grams. It is recorded that 30 grams of top premium quality Da-Hong-Pao has been sold for 200, 000 RMB (approx 28,000 USD).
