Chinese foods are an attraction indispensable in a good tour. With a long history, unique features, numerous styles and exquisite cooking, Chinese cuisine is one important constituent part of Chinese culture.
Chinese festivals reflect the diverse cultural heritage of its many ethnic groups. Food plays a very important part in any celebrations and what better way can one celebrate but by enjoying rich and colorful occasions with special tasty dishes.
Dumplings
With a long history of more than 1,800 years, dumplings are a traditional food widely popular in North China. Dumplings consist of minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped into a thin piece of dough skin.Popular fillings are mince pork, diced shrimp, ground chicken, beef, and vegetables. They can be cooked by boiling, steaming, or frying. Dumplings are a traditional dish eaten on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
Throughout the country families will eat 'zongzi' to memorize the national hero Qu Yuan (he ended his life by drowning in the Miluo River on hearing his state was defeated.) on the Dragon Boat Festival, the day of Qu Yuan's death. Zongzi is pyramid-shaped dumplings made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves, usually made into sweet with dates in northern China. However, it can be either sweet or savory and made from a great variety of ingredients besides glutinous rice, such as meat, shrimp, bean paste and nuts in southern China.
In Chinese, "fish" sounds like 'surplus'. Chinese people always like to have a surplus at the end of the year, because they think if they have managed to save something at the end of the year, then they can make more in the next year.
