China, with over 5000 years' of culinary history, employs an immense variety of ingredients, flavors, preparation and cooking techniques in its cuisine. Geography, climate, agriculture, and culture vary greatly from region to region, giving rise to the different styles of food.
Chinese cuisine is classified into four schools (the north, south, east, and west), which are further divided into eight main regional cuisines (Anhui , Guangdong (Canton) , Hunan , Jiangsu , Shandong , Sichuan (Szechuan) , and Zhejiang). There are also featured Buddhist and Muslim sub-cuisines within the greater Chinese cuisine. This often presents travelers in China with a dilemma: what to try next?

The south

South China (Guangdong, Hainan) is in the tropical and subtropical zones, with rivers, lakes, and a higher rainfall. Because of the rich resources brought by these climate and landscape factors, Southern Chinese food is characterized by the staggering variety of the ingredients used, and is widely regarded as the country’s best. In addition to produce, meats and seafood, Cantonese cuisine is known for its sometime use of ‘exotic’ ingredients. A

famous proverb illustrates the variety of Cantonese food: "anything that walks, swims, crawls, or flies with its back to Heaven is edible." However, these exotic foods are not eaten that often. Guangdong food are often exaggerated and magnified by these sayings often due to the lack of understanding in foreign culinary traditions in the Western world.

Guangdong cuisine stresses freshness of ingredients and corrects cooking method. Ingredients are usually prepared with a light touch, just enough cooking and seasoning to keep the original color of the material and the natural flavors of the foods. There are countless Cantonese cooking methods, steaming, stir-frying, shallow frying; double boiling, braising and deep-frying are the most popular cooking methods. The traditional Guangdong cuisine emphasizes seafood, especially various kinds of steamed fish and shellfish. Pork and duck in whole are glazed with mixtures of soy sauce, peanut oil, ginger, onion, sugar, wine, and roasted to a beautiful reddish gold. Dishes are almost always served with freshly steam rice, since rice is the staple crop of South China.
Most Chinese restaurants in western countries serve the Cantonese food, or its derivatives (partly because of the large emigration from this region in the early days). Guangdong cuisine has been heavily influenced by foreign cooking cultures.

The east

Eastern Chinese cuisine, found in the region of Jiangsu , Zhejiang , Shanghai and the surrounding provinces, is one of the lesser-known types of Chinese food, generally characterized as 'sweet and oily'. Not surprisingly, Seafood and freshwater fish predominates in Eastern Chinese cuisine, as the nearby ocean,Yangtze River, numerous lakes and river tributaries provide abundant

fish, shrimp, and shellfish to this region. Steaming, stewing, braising and frying are the most common forms of Eastern Chinese cooking. This school uses sugar, vinegars and wines to provide sweet tastes and create subtlety of flavor.

"Shanghainese" cuisine is known for its hodgepodge and diversity in China. The hundreds of different regional and village recipes were brought into the dominant port city of Shanghai. Shanghai cuisine also incorporates some foreign influence because of European presence in the 19th and 20th centuries. There are Shanghai-style zakuski (Russian cold appetizers), French-style cakes and pastries. A Shanghainese menu can be an assortment of different styles and often contains Sichuan, Guangdong, and Northern China dishes. Shanghai Sautéed Crabs with Sour Sauce and Stewed meat ball, Suzhou's Sweet and Sour Mandarin Fish? and succulent Chinese ham in honey sauce, Nanjing's pressed duck, Wuxi's sweet-and-sour pork spare ribs, Hangzhou's quick-fried shredded eel? or Beggar's Chicken), the list is endless.

The west

Sichuan Szechuan and Hunan cuisines are the most famous in China's western regional school of cooking, which are primarily known for their hot and spicy dishes. Many Chinese Szechuan and Hunan restaurants overseas serve some version of Sichuan and Hunan food, but they are really just a pale comparison to the authentic things. Red chilis are used in many dishes, often rivaling that of Mexican or Thai preparations.

The reason for this emphasis on spice may derive from the region's hot, humid climate as well as its hundreds of years' independent culture from other parts of China. The climate also contributes to the necessity of sophisticated food-preservation techniques which include pickling, salting, drying and smoking. However, there is more to the Szechuan and Hunan food than spice and sauces rich and strong in flavor. There is a large portion of recipes that use little or no spice at all, such as "Tea Smoked Duck".
The spices and ingredients used in China's western food include a variety of chili peppers, peppercorns over various types, and Sichuan peppers, also known as flower pepper or mountain pepper. In addition to the warm flavor, Sichuan peppers' numbing effect, called ma la in Chinese, makes the tongue and mouth numb and tingly. Hunan dishes are more often made with fresh chili peppers, including the seeds and membranes, while Szechuan recipes frequently call for Chile bean paste. Chili peppers are a traditional part of the Chinese five spice powder – sweet, sour, pungent, salty and bitter.