Picture choosen by: MissWang Yenshan Eat in China Food in China varies widely from region to region so the term "Chinese food" is pretty much a blanket term, just like "Western food."

Famous cuisines
·Beijing ( Jing Cài ): home-style noodles and baozi (bread buns), Peking Duck (Beijing Kaoya), cabbage dishes, great pickles. Not fancy but can be great and satisfying.
·Imperial ( Gongtíng Cài): the food of the late Qing court, made famous by the Empress Dowager Cixi, can be sampled at high-end specialized restaurants in Beijing. The cuisine combines elements of Manchu frontier food with unique and fabulously expensive items such as camel's paw, shark's fin and bird's nest.
·Cantonese / Guangzhou / Hong Kong (Guangdong Cài, Yuè Cài): the style most Western visitors are already familiar with to some extent. Not too spicy, the emphasis is on freshly cooked ingredients and seafood. Dim Sum (Dianxin), small snacks usually eaten for breakfast or lunch, are a highlight. Authentic Cantonese cuisine is also among the most adventurous in China in terms of variety of ingredients.
·Shanghai (Hù Cài): because of its geographical location, Shanghai cuisine is considered to be a good mix of northern and southern Chinese cooking styles. The most famous dishes are xiaolongbao (Xiaolóngbao) and chives dumplings (Jiucài Jiaozi ). Another specialty is "pulled noodles" (lamiàn), from which Japanese ramen and Korean ramyeon are believed to be derived. Sugar is often added to fried dishes giving Shanghainese food a sweet flavor.
·Sichuan (Chuan Cài): Famously hot and spicy. A popular saying is that it is so spicy your mouth will go numb. However, not all dishes are made with live chilis. Arguably the finest PRC cuisine, it is widely available outside Sichuan. If you want really authentic Sichuanese food outside Sichuan, look for small eateries sporting the characters for Sichuan cuisine in neighborhoods with lots of migrant workers. These tend to be much cheaper and often better than the ubiquitous up-market Sichuan restaurants.hot pot pinyin: huo guo), or less commonly Chinese fondue, refers to several East Asian varieties of steamboat stew. It consists of a simmering metal pot of stock at the center of the dining table. While the hot pot is kept simmering, ingredients are placed into the pot and are cooked at the table. Typical hot pot dishes include thinly sliced meat, leafy vegetables, mushrooms, wontons, egg dumplings, and seafood. The cooked food is usually eaten with a dipping sauce.
·Teochew / Chaozhou (Cháozhou Cài): originating from the Shantou area in northern Guangdong, a unique style which nonetheless will be familiar to most Southeast Asian and Hong Kong Chinese. Famous dishes include braised duck (Luya), yam paste dessert (Yùní) and fishballs (Yúwán)
·Fujian (Fújiàn Cài, Min Cài): uses ingredients mostly from coastal and estuarial waterways. "Buddha Jumps over a Wall" (Fó Tiào Qiáng) is particularly famous. According to legend, the smell was so good a monk forgot his vegetarian vows and leapt over the wall to have some. Fujian cuisine can be split into at least two distinct cuisines: Minnan cuisine from the area around Xiamen and Mindong cuisine from the area around Fuzhou.
·Zhejiang (Zhè Cài): includes the foods of Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Shaoxing. A delicately seasoned, light-tasting mix of seafood and vegetables often served in soup. Sometimes lightly sweetened or sometimes sweet and sour, Zhejiang dishes frequently involve cooked meats and vegetables in combination.

Fast food
Various types of Chinese food provide quick, cheap, tasty, light meals. Street food and snacks sold from portable vendors can be found throughout Beijing as well as Hong Kong; Wangfujing district's Snack Street in Beijing is a notable area for street food. Street side food vendors are called gai bin dong in Cantonese, such ventures can grow into a substantial business with the stalls only barely 'mobile' in the traditional street food sense:
Various items from the ubiquitous bakeries.
Barbecued sticks of meat from street vendors. Yang rou chuan, or fiery Xinjiang-style lamb kebabs, are particularly renowned.
Jiaozi, which Chinese translate as "dumplings", boiled, steamed or fried ravioli-like items with a variety of fillings. These are found throughout Asia: momos, mandu, gyoza, and jiaozi are all basically variations of the same thing.
Baozi, steamed buns stuffed with salty, sweet or vegetable fillings.
Mantou, steamed bread available on the roadside - great for a very cheap and filling snack.
Lanzhou-style lamian, fresh hand-pulled noodles.

Drinks
Beer (píjiu) is very common in China and is served in nearly every restaurant. The most famous brand is Tsingtao from Qingdao, which was at one point a German concession.
Báijiu is distilled liquor, generally about 80 to 120 proof made from sorghum and sometimes other grains depending on the region. Máotái, is China's most famous brand of baijiu and China's national liquor
There is a lot of tea (chá) in China. Green tea (luchá) is served up for free in almost every restaurant. The most common types served are green gunpowder tea (?? zhuchá), so named not after the taste but after the appearance of the bunched-up leaves used to brew it (the Chinese name "pearl tea" is rather more poetic), jasmine tea (mòlihuachá) scented with jasmine flowers, and the half-fermented oolong (wulóng). However, specialist tea houses serve a vast variety of brews, ranging from the pale, delicate white tea (báichá) to the powerful fermented and aged pu'erchá; check prices carefully before ordering as some of the best varieties can be very pricey indeed. Most tea shops have some teas at several hundred yuan a jing (500 grams) and prices up to 2000 are not uncommon. The record price for top grade tea sold at auction is well over US$1000 a gram.
Various areas of China have famous teas. Hangzhou, near Shanghai, is famed for its "Dragon Well" (lóngjing) green tea. Fujian has the most famous oolong teas, "Dark Red Robe" (dàhóngpáo) from Mount Wuyi and "Iron Goddess of Mercy" (tieguanyin) from Anxi. Pu'er in Yunnan has the most famous fully fermented tea, pu'erchá. This comes compressed into hard cakes, originally a packing method for transport by horse caravan to Burma and Tibet. The cakes are embossed with patterns; some people hang them up as wall decorations.
Most tea shops will be more than happy to let you sit down and try different varieties of tea. "Ten Fu Tea" is a national chain, and in Beijing "Wu Yu Tai" is the one some locals say they favor.
Normal Chinese teas are always drunk neat, with the use of sugar or milk unknown. However, in some areas you will find Hong Kong style "milk tea" (naichá) or Tibetan "butter tea". Taiwanese bubble tea (Zhenzhu Naichá) is also popular and widely available. The type of tea that is common in the West, Indian or Sri Lankan, is known in China as "red tea" (hóngchá).
coffee: There won’t be any problem to buy a cup of coffee in urban area, The price is relatively high. If you are in rural area, you could buy some Instant Coffee in supermarket though.