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Food in China: A Student’s Guide
How eating works day to day on exchange — canteens, delivery, ordering and dietary needs. What to actually eat depends on the city, so each city guide has its own local food page.
✓ Last verified: September 2026Rules, prices and apps change, so confirm before you travel.
📘 Part of our complete guide to student exchange in China
Short answer: Campus canteens are the cheapest way to eat well (often ¥12–20 a meal). Meituan and Ele.me deliver almost anything to your dorm gate, Dianping tells you which restaurants are worth it, and a camera translator handles menus. Regional food varies enormously, so try what your city is known for.
How Students Eat Day to Day
- Canteens (食堂) — pay by student card or phone; point at dishes or take a tray from set windows. Cheapest and fastest.
- Small restaurants near campus — noodles, dumplings, rice sets and hotpot, usually ¥15–40 a person. To pick one, check ratings, customer photos and recommended dishes on Dianping (大众点评).
- Delivery (外卖) — Meituan and Ele.me deliver to dorm pick-up points, often within 30 minutes. Setup and tips in the app cheat sheet.
- Convenience stores — FamilyMart, Lawson and local chains sell hot snacks, drinks and ready meals 24/7.
- Supermarkets and wet markets — if you have a kitchen, fresh produce is cheap.
From my exchange (ZJU Zijingang, autumn 2026): On class days I eat on campus and order Meituan delivery almost daily. I speak Chinese, so ordering has been easy for me. If you don’t, many restaurants let you order through Alipay, and a translation app covers the rest.
Ordering Without Much Chinese
- Many restaurants use a QR code on the table: scan it, order and pay on your phone — a translator app makes this easy.
- Useful phrases: 这个 zhège (this one), 不要辣 bú yào là (not spicy), 微辣 wēi là (mildly spicy), 打包 dǎbāo (to take away), 买单 mǎidān (the bill).
- Portions in restaurants are often for sharing — order one dish per person plus rice.
- New to shared tables or eating with a Chinese family? See dining etiquette and chopstick basics in the Culture & Etiquette guide.
Dietary Needs
- Vegetarian: say 我吃素 wǒ chī sù (I’m vegetarian); meat stock and lard are common, so Buddhist vegetarian restaurants (素食) are the safest option.
- Halal: look for 清真 (qīngzhēn) signs — many campuses have a halal canteen window, and Lanzhou beef noodle shops are everywhere.
- Allergies: carry a written card in Chinese naming your allergy; peanuts, sesame, shellfish and MSG are common ingredients.
Regional Food You’ll Hear About
Food changes dramatically by region: Peking duck in Beijing, xiaolongbao and sweet-savoury dishes around Shanghai, mapo tofu and hotpot in Sichuan, biangbiang noodles in Xi’an, and delicate, lightly sweet Zhejiang cooking in Hangzhou. The city food guides cover each place’s signature dishes with Chinese names and student prices.
City Food Guides
What to Eat in Hangzhou
Dongpo pork, Longjing shrimp, pian’erchuan noodles — Chinese names, prices and where to try them.
Where to Eat Near Zhejiang University
Canteens, student streets and budget eats around ZJU campuses.
More city food guides: Shanghai · Shenzhen · Beijing.
Explore Your City
Once the setup is done, the city guides cover what changes from place to place: neighbourhoods, local food, attractions, student areas and weekend trips.
Hangzhou — West Lake, tea villages, local food · Shanghai — neighbourhoods, food, day trips · Shenzhen — bay parks, beaches, Hong Kong trips · Beijing — Forbidden City, Great Wall, hutongs · Nanjing — Ming walls, Purple Mountain · Wuhan — Yangtze, East Lake · Hefei — science city, Huangshan trips · Harbin — ice festival · All city guides
Related Guides
Last updated: September 2026. Prices, opening hours and rules in China change often — treat costs as estimates and confirm anything important with the official source before you go.
Photos: Photo by u9896 u5f90 on Pexels.com · Photo by AMANDA LIM on Pexels.com · Windmemories / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
