City Guide - Beijing - Dining

Cuisine from many different cultures permeates the Beijing dining scene. If you would like to experience a luxurious repast, the noted Chinese eight cuisines can satisfy your appetite with no doubts. Having a long history of development, any of these cuisines has its unique regional flavor, spanning from the cooking skills to the selected materials. Of course cuisines from other regions of the country can also offer you distinctive dishes to enjoy.

Anhui: Short for Hui cai (also known as Wan cai), Anhui Cuisine is the label given to local dishes in Anhui Province.

Cantonese: There are lots of excellent, non-scary Guangdong dishes - the seafood being especially tasty.

Fujian: Based on seafood, Fujian Cuisine (Min cai) has salt, sweet, sour and hot flavors, using a wide range of seasonings.

Hunan: Definitely well-known as spicy as Sichuan Cuisine, Xiang cai (Huanan Cuisine) has totally different spicy taste that can be told by its recommended samplings.

Jiangsu: Also known as Su cai originated in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589), Jiangsu Cuisine is enjoyed by people around the country for its sweet flavor.

Shandong: Shandong Cuisine, also known as Lu cai, is made up cuisines of Jiaozhou (mainly the seafood) from the coast, Jinan from inlandand Kongfu, tasting somewhat salty.

Sichuan: Sichuan Cuisine (Chuan cai) are everywhere to be seen, tasting hot and spicy from the use of hot peppers and strong seasonings.

Zhejiang: Composed by the dishes in Hangzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, Zhe cai (Zhejiang Cuisine) is an important part in Chinese Cuisine with a history over 2,000 years.

Chaozhou: As one of the three branches of Guangdong Cuisine, it has some similarities with Guangdong dishes, such as its light and fresh flavor.

Dongbei: It is a great style of food to have in winter, usually composed of large quantities of meat in thick, fairly salty sauces and heavily featured by potatoes.

Huaiyang: Huaiyang cai is the famous cuisine of the Middle and Lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which can be called the noble dishes in Chinese Cuisines.

Shaanxi: With a history over 5,000 years and seen as the most ancient cuisine all over the country, wheaten food is the highlight part of Shaanxi Cuisines.

Shanghai: Shanghai Cai, also called Ben Bang Cai, is originally derived from the homely dishes, so it looks a littler simpler than the delicate Cantonese Cuisine.

Shanxi: No other Chinese cuisine pays as much attention to staple food as Shanxi Cuisine which is excel at making noodles.

Xinjiang: The Uygurs are a Muslim group from Xinjiang in the Northwest. There are Uygurs all over the city selling lamb shish kebob and local snacks, specialities.