Don’t despair if you want to try some of the local cuisine and cannot speak Chinese. Many of the restaurants have menus with pictures on them, so ordering is as simple as pointing. Remember that nearly every restaurant only has chopsticks for utensils, so start practicing!

• Cantonese Restaurants – Cantonese (Yue) cuisine comes from Guangdong Province in Southern China, or specifically from Guangzhou (Canton). Of all the regional varieties of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the best known outside China; most “Chinese restaurants” in Western countries serve authentic Cantonese cuisine and dishes based on it. Its prominence outside China is due to its palatability to Westerners and the great numbers of early emigrants from Guangdong. In China, too, it enjoys great prestige among the eight great traditions of Chinese cuisine, and Cantonese chefs are highly sought after throughout the country.
• Hunan Restaurants – Hunan cuisine, sometimes called Xiang cuisine, consists of the cuisines of the Xiang River region, Dongting Lake and western Hunan Province, in China. Hunan cuisine is consisted of three styles: Xiang River style which is represented by dishes of Changsha, Dongting Lake style which is represented by dishes of Hengyang, and western Hunan style which is represented by dishes of Xiangtan. Hunan cuisine is one of the eight regional cuisines of China and is well known for its hot spicy flavor, fresh aroma and deep color. Common cooking techniques include stewing, frying, pot-roasting, braising, and smoking. Due to the high agricultural output of the region, ingredients for Hunan dishes are many and varied.
• Sichuan Restaurants – Szechuan cuisine, Szechwan cuisine, or Sichuan cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine originating in Sichuan Province of southwestern China which has an international reputation for being spicy. Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, drying and smoking, and is generally spicy. Nearly universal is The Sichuan peppercorn; an indigenous plant whose peppercorns produce a fragrant, numbing, almost citrusy spice. Also common are chili, ginger and spicy herbs. Some well-known Szechuan dishes include Kung Pao chicken and Twice Cooked Pork.
• Other Types of Chinese Cuisine – There are many other types of chinese cooking, from Mongolian to Yunnan and Shanghai. These are lesser known internationally, but no less delicious.