Overview:

As you may have noticed from eating Chinese food in North American restaurants, each region of China has its own type of food. Chuan food is hot and spicy; Beijing cooking is done with a lot of meat and vegetables (including the most famous Chinese dish of all, Peking Duck); Cantonese traditions include dim sum and delicacies like shark's fin soup; Shanghai cuisine is prepared with plenty of seafood and oil.

Join the scrum at your local wet market, or head for the nearest international supermarket for peace of mind. We've got your shopping info here, including the latest online, direct-from-farm and organic grocery information.

Shanghai if loaded with activities and places for the whole family. 

Check out our list of outdoor activities and things to see and do for the whole family!

The atmosphere in Chinese restaurants is known as "renao". It means "hot and noisy" and that is just the way that the Chinese like it! When the Chinese eat out, they like to have fun - the idea of expensive wine and candlelight dinners is definitely not their style.

If you are a shop-a-holic, then you'll find shopping in China has a lot to offer, if you go searching for it. You may need to ask the right questions to find the kind of venue or experience you are looking for. Be prepared to barter. Learn some Chinese or take someone Chinese along with you.

Tip: every place that you go to - ask for a business card. That way, the next time you want to go there, you can simply show the business card to the taxi driver. It makes life much easier and you gain a lot of personal independence. In China you can easily buy wallet size business card holders. I kept all my business cards in this, in my handbag, and was able to go anywhere I wanted to go without asking for help or someone to translate for me.