Opening hours and places to eat

Small noodle shops and food stalls next to train and bus stations or at airports and docks have flexible hours, but restaurant opening times normally are restricted, serving early and fast even in the largest cities.

Breakfast is taken from 6am to 9am. If you get up late you will have to wait for lunch at 11am or so. You can have lunch until 2pm, and then you will have to pass the time until around 5pm when the evening meal is served. By 6pm restaurants are often crowded and by 9pm some dishes won’t be available.

Hotel dining rooms serve a series of foreign and regional Chinese plates, but it is very expensive comparing to average establishments. Advantages of hotels are that staff speaks English and some other languages like French or Japanese, and that they serve a wide set menu of local dishes.

In China restaurants have habitually two or three floors: the first is used as a canteen with dishes written on a board hung on the wall. You have to buy chits from a cashier and exchange them at the kitchen hatch before eating, and sit down in large collective tables or benches.

Upstairs are more exclusive and have formal dining arrangements, with waitress service and a written menu, while the rest floors are reserved for banquet parties or foreign travel groups.

Stalls and canteens are the less expensive. They offer simple dishes which are sometimes better than the furnished food of restaurants and hotels. A good advice for visitors is that they buy their own set of disposable chopsticks, because water is not always accessible and clean.

Eating and drinking in China

Ingredients and methods

Vegetarian food

Regional cookery

Breakfast, snacks and fast foods

Western and international food