China Food
Honest student guides to canteens, street food, and dishes you’ll actually eat on exchange.
About
How This Guide Recommends Food
I don’t do generic “top 10 dishes” lists. For every city I cover, I break food down the way I actually eat: the signature local dishes worth seeking out, the cheapest way to eat well day-to-day (usually a campus canteen or a delivery app), and specific restaurants, food streets, and stalls that are worth a special trip. Hangzhou is fully written up now, and each new city gets the same treatment as I travel and actually eat my way through it — so check the relevant city page below for the specifics.
What to Expect
China’s food culture shifts dramatically by region, but a few dishes are famous enough that you’ll recognize them everywhere: Peking duck in Beijing, xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) around Shanghai, mapo tofu and hotpot from Sichuan, and biangbiang noodles from Xi’an. Canteens, night markets, and delivery apps make almost all of it cheap and easy to find as a student. Each city has its own specialties worth seeking out, so I’m building out a food guide for the region I actually live in first.