Your China Visa Buys Some Truly Exotic Cuisine

China is a vast country so it shouldn’t come as a great surprise that there are significant variations in Chinese cuisine wherever one travels, and that does not exclude of course the famously British variant which in many Occidental restaurants and take-aways has long adopted a character all of its own. The major culinary traditions of China include Fujian, Cantonese, Anhui, Hunan, Jiangsu, Szechuan, Shandong and Zhejiang, and although these are traditionally described as being the “Eight Cuisines of China” this list is nothing close to being exhaustive.

The distinctive characteristics of each of these “cuisines” are in a great many respects determined by different climates, tradition and history, the basic availability of ingredients, ethnic factors and preferred dining styles. Some Chinese dishes are spicy and chilli is frequently used, however Chinese cuisine generally does not share the reputation for hot spice that one would associate, for instance, with Indian or other South Asian foods. Instead it is more famous for the distinctive flavours of sweet and sour and soy, and for its use in many dishes of bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and noodles as well as the well-known and much copied stir fry style of cooking.

Each regional cuisine boasts its own distinct “specialities”, although the use of staples and some basic ingredients is to a large extent a common factor. Szechuan cooking, for example, uses a great deal of chilli pepper and garlic whilst Fujian and Jiangsu lead very much on seafood. The “dim sum” (small hearty dishes) style of eating that is so popular in the West is a Cantonese concept. Hunan tends usually to be hot and spicy, whereas by contrast Zhejiang is mellow and soft. Xinjiang sometimes puts its emphasis on mutton and kebabs which, due to much of the local population being Muslim, is usually halal.

It soon becomes evident to the Western visitor that there is just so much more to Chinese food than prawn balls and chicken chow mein. Despite the abundance of eateries in the UK and indeed throughout the West the only real way to appreciate and it in its natural presence is to visit China itself.

In order to enter the country one first needs a China Visa, which can be arranged by an immigration service provider. If required it is sometimes possible to acquire an urgent China Visa, for same day travel.

China is in a great many ways an entire world contained in one enormous country. It has always been seen by people in the West as a land of mystery, but it is a mystery that is there asking to be unravelled by the enterprising visitor.