Food and Dining

Ordering at Restaurants Outside School

Many restaurants ask customers to scan a QR code on the table to order. Menus may be only in Chinese, so photo translation is very important.

Suggestions:

• Use a translation app to translate menu photos.
• Eat with Chinese classmates a few times to learn common dish names.
• If you are unsure, order by looking at pictures.
• When eating with several people, Chinese restaurants usually serve shared dishes instead of one separate plate per person.
• If you cannot eat spicy food, say so in advance.

Food Delivery

Common food delivery platforms:

• Meituan.
• Taobao Shangou.

Suggestions:

• Write your delivery address in Chinese whenever possible.
• Clearly include the hotel, school, dormitory building, room number, and phone number.
• Delivery workers may call you. If your Chinese is limited, prepare a fixed reply in advance.

Spice Levels

Different regions in China have very different ideas of what “spicy” means. Do not overestimate your spice tolerance when you first arrive.

If you are unsure, start with “不辣” or “微辣”.

Dietary Restrictions and Allergies

Severe allergies are less commonly discussed in China. If you have religious dietary requirements, vegetarian habits, or serious allergies, prepare an explanation in Chinese in advance. Some Chinese restaurants may understand “vegetarian” as “no large pieces of meat”, but they may still use animal oil, broth, oyster sauce, or small amounts of minced meat.

Foods That Are Good to Try First

• Baozi.
• Dumplings.
• Lanzhou beef noodles.
• Fried rice.
• Tomato egg noodles.
• Jianbing.
• Malatang.
• Hot pot.

At the beginning, choose foods with simple flavors and clear ingredients, then slowly try local specialties.