Beijing

There are four major cooking styles in China: Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong and Huaiyang, with each having dozens of branches. All styles are represented in Beijing with thousands of restaurants. In addition, recent years have seen the emergence of restaurants offering French, Russian and Italian foods as well as American fast food.

(1) Peking Duck
Peking Duck has the reputation of being the most delicious food in the world. It mainly consists of pieces of duck dipped in plum sauce and placed in a pancake with scallions and cucumbers. The fatter the duck and crisper the skin, the more authentic (but not necessarily the best tasting for foreigners). A big roast duck meal can include other duck-related appetizers, soups and dishes. The Chinese have a saying: Visitors to Beijing must do two things: climb the Great Wall and eat Peking Duck. While at Quan JuDe, ducks are roasted directly over flames from fruit-tree wood, at Bian Yi Fang roasting is done in closed containers fired with crop stalks. The best places to go for Peking Duck are Qianmen, Hepingmen and Wangfujing.

(2) Royal Court Food

Over 800 years when Beijing served as the nation's capital, a cooking style catering to the royal court developed into a major school on a par with other national cuisine. Today, ordinary people can sample food of this cooking style, which was formerly reserved for royals only. The best restaurants offering court food are Fang Shan in Beihai Park and Ting Li Guan in the Summer Palace. Restaurants specializing in court food are not only meticulous about the quality of raw food selected, but lay great emphasis on the ambiance and decoration of the dining rooms.

(3) Feast of Complete Manchu-Han Courses (Man Han Quan Xi)

One evening in early 1993,35 Chinese and foreign tourists clad in clothes that made them the look-alikes of a Qing emperor, his queen,his concubines and court officials filed into the Fang Shan Restaurant. They were the fifth group to sample Man Han Quan Xi, or Feast of Complete Manchu-Han Courses, in the 70-year history of the restaurant. Man Han Quan Xi foods include bears' paw, hedgehog hydnum, tiger kidney, David's deer, ginseng, bracken, camel hump, shark fin, soft-shell turtle and fish skin, to name only a few. As many raw dishes come from wild life now under state protection, these courses are no longer available.

(4) All-Fish Feast
Ting Li Guan or Villa for Listening to the Oriole located in the Summer Palace, is where Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing Dynasty enjoyed operas . The restaurant now housed in the villa offers seasonal dishes such as lotus-seed soup, lotus-leaf-wrapped yellow croaker and lotus-leaf-wrapped meat in summer, and chrysanthemum fish in autumn. The Ting Li Guan Restaurant is best known for its all-fish dinners prepared with live fish caught from the vast Kunming Lake, part of the Summer Place resort.

(5) Hot Pot

The majority of restaurants in Beijing, big or small, serve huoguo, or hot pot. Customers sit around a table on which is place a hotpot. When the water in the pot boils,they dip paper-thin slices of mutton in the water and , seconds later,get the cooked mutton out of the opt and mix them with a sauce that contains sesame butter, salted leek and a dozen other ingredients. People also cook frozen bean curd,Chinese cabbage and vermicelli in the hot pot.

(6) Moslem Flavor

After the Jin and Yuan dynasties (1115-1368), with more Hui people settling in Beijing, Moslem food consisting mainly of beef and mutton became increasingly popular in the city. Beef and mutton are cooked in many ways. Cooked mutton alone comes in dozens of varieties, including instant stewed mutton and mutton cooked in sly sauce. The best restaurant offering Mongolian hot pot in Beijing is DongLai Shun on Wangfujing Street; and the best roast mutton restaurant is the 145-year-old Kao Rou Ji beside Lake Shichahai. Also, the You Yi Shun Restaurant at Xidan is known for its fried mutton and the nearby Hong Bin Lou Restaurant for its all-mutton feast.

(7) Beijing-style Barbecue

A mix of Mongolian, Korean and Manchurian styles. Similar to hot pots, but using marinated and barbecued mutton and vegetables.

(8) Dumplings/Pot Stickers

Dumplings are common throughout the North. There are many restaurants that have dozens of varieties of dumplings with different meats, spices and vegetables.

(9) DouZhir

Cannot translate this into English. A dish only for the brave, it is the most pungent soup on Earth, consisting of a green, fermented tofu base. Must mix with crackers and preserved vegetables to neutralize the taste.

(10) Tofu Brains   Not real brains. Tofu is stirred in a chili sauce to make it look like brains. The tofu is soft and the sauce is savory.

(11) Folk Snacks
A Beijinger who has long resided abroad says: What miss most are the numerous snacks back home. Douzhi, pagao, ludagun, chatang and zhaguanchang all make the mouth water. Douzhi is a fermented drink made from ground beans; pagaois a cold food made from buckwheat flour; ludagun is a sweet millet flour cake coated, after steaming, with a layer of soy bean flour,chatang is a thin, hot gruel of sorghum flour; and zhaguanchang is fried sausage.

(12) Porcelain

the original "China"－is still a major industry, producing dinner services, figurines and productions of antique vases, teapots and the like. The finest porcelain in the world can be easily purchased in China.

(13) Cloisonné

(enamel formed in patterns of copper wire)is an art form developed in the 15th century, and now used to decorate vases, bowls, lamps, jewelry and ornaments.

(14) Lacquerware

Lacquerware consists of up to 500 coats of lacquer applied to a copper base and carved into designs. the colors are red, green, yellow and black, while favorite patterns show flowers, birds, landscapes and figures. Lacquer is used for vases, plates, bowls and screens. Some lacquerware is inlaid with gold, mother-of -pearl or jade, to decorate folding screens and furniture which are genuine works of art.

(15) Jade

Jade is regarded by the Chinese as a stone descended from heaven. They value its hard, cool texture and translucent colors. It is extremely difficult to carve but China's craftsmen create incredibly intricate ornaments and jewelry from jade.

(16) Carpets, modern and antique, for use as tapestries for rugs, are plentiful and available at bargain prices. Those made in Beijing are close-woven with fine wool cut into sharp, elegant patterns, such as the dragon and phoenix design. Beautiful silk carpets and rugs from other provinces in China are also available in the capital.

(17) Silk

Silk, which has brought fame to China, can be readily found in a dazzling array of colors, patterns and textures. While large State-owned stores like the Beijing Yuanlong silk Corporation, Ltd. Can be trusted for quality and offer ready-made clothes as well as a complete array of fabric, private markets like Xiushui and Yabao lu sell all kinds of silk clothing from shirts, underwear and trousers, to pajamas and bedspreads at negotiable prices. Most vendors at the markets are self-employed and speak some English. All the products are marked in Western sizes, but sizes are often deceiving , try on for size. Chinese long gowns are considered the most elegant garment most suitable for women's figures. Silk gowns can be a truly long-lasting and useful item to purchase in China－for yourself or as gifts for those "special people" back home .

(18) Medicine

Medicine, Chinese pharmacies sell various kinds of nutritious pills and tonics made from herbs. Tongrentang, as other traditional pharmacies, have a "resident" doctor in charge of taking your pulse and making prescriptions. Most large department stores and supermarkets have special drug counters.

(19) Handicraft

Clay figurines and animals can be traced back to 1840s, and are still one of the most unique crafts in North China.
Dough modeling is another traditional folk art handed down from ancient tines. Kneaded in half-cooked glutinous rice flour, dough figures, flowers and birds are popular small toys and exhibits in Beijing.
Toy Monkeys are loved by children. The monkey is a near sacred animal in old Chinese folk tales. These toy monkeys are meticulously made and shown engaged in a variety of activities.
Papercut ting is one of the most popular handicrafts in Beijing. There is a wider variety of papercutting patterns than you can imagine available.
Kites can be used as ornaments and toys. one of China's favorite past tines is flying kites, especially in Beijing where there's usually plenty of wind around to send them soaring into the sky. Available in many art and craft stores, kites are among the best Chinese presents to friends back home.
Stamps, Chinese stamps add a colorful page to your collection.
Snuff Bottles, with paintings inside, represent a popular art from the Qing Dynasty and make excellent small gifts. You and your friends will marvel for years on how the artist paints such intricate drawings on the inside of these very small bottles.
Bone products, made from oxen and camel bones, include knives, forks, spoons, bracelets and necklaces.
Embroidery & Drawn work appear on table cloths, napkins, sheets and handkerchiefs, all of which are excellent buys. silk Corporation, Ltd. has a wide selection.

(20) Painting & Calligraphy scrolls

Painting and calligraphy works are found in hundreds of stores. They vary in age, quality and price with the finest being true works of art. The brushes ink slabs, ink and paper that were the scholar's traditional tools can be found in most antique shops. One of the best sources is the China Book Store, off the courtyard-parking in East Liulichang.

(21) Others
Cotton shoes, Snow-Lotus cashmere sweaters, woolen bed sheets, cotton shirts, and other practical clothing items are some of the best bargains in the world.