China Travel Tips

Festival and Holidays

Here is a chronological introduction to traditional festivals in China throughout the year:

Lunar January

Spring Festival:

The First Day Of The First Lunar Month, With 4 Days Off For All Citizens (From Lunar New Year's Eve To The Third Day Of The First Lunar Month). As China's Most Important Traditional Festival, Customs Include Posting Spring Festival Couplets, Setting Off Firecrackers, Staying Up Late On New Year's Eve, Paying New Year Visits, And Giving Red Envelopes To Celebrate The Start Of The New Year.

Fireworks Display

Dragon And Lion Dance

Po Wu Festival:

The Fifth Day Of The First Lunar Month, During Which Some Regions Practice Customs Like Seeing Off Poverty And Welcoming The God Of Wealth.

Chinese Lanterns

Lantern Festival:

The 15th Day Of The First Lunar Month (Usually Falling In February). Lantern Festival Marks The End Of The New Year Celebrations And Welcomes The First Full Moon Of The Lunar Calendar.

Lanterns Festival

Release Kongming Lanterns

Lunar February

Dragon-Head-Raising Festival:

The second day of the second lunar month, also known as the Spring Dragon Festival. Folklore includes getting a haircut ('dragon head shave') and eating longxu mian (dragon beard noodles), implying the dragon's rise and all things reviving, praying for favorable weather and a bountiful harvest.

Get a Haircut

Dragon beard noodles

Lunar March

Shangsi Festival:

The third day of the third lunar month. In ancient times, people would wash by the water to exorcise evil, later evolving into a festival for banquets by the water and outings in the countryside.

Banqueting by the Water

Lunar April

Qingming Festival:

Around April 5th in the Gregorian calendar, with 1 day off for all citizens on the lunar Qingming day. It is a festival for ancestor worship and tomb sweeping, accompanied by outdoor activities like spring outings, kite flying, and swinging, reflecting the Chinese people's awe of life and death and closeness to nature.

Ancestor Worship

Lunar May

Dragon Boat Festival:

The fifth day of the fifth lunar month, with 1 day off for all citizens. Established to commemorate Qu Yuan, customs include eating zongzi (sticky rice dumplings), dragon boat racing, hanging calamus, and drinking realgar wine, symbolizing exorcism, epidemic prevention, and blessing for health.

Eating Sticky Rice Dumplings

Dragon Boat Racing

Lunar July

Qixi Festival:

The seventh day of the seventh lunar month, also known as the Magpie Bridge Festival or Chinese Valentine's Day. Legend has it that the Cowherd and Weaver Girl meet on this day, and folk customs include women praying for ingenuity and worshipping the Weaver Girl.

Give Flowers to Your Lover

The Story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl

Lunar August

Mid-Autumn Festival:

The 15th day of the eighth lunar month, with 1 day off for all citizens. The full moon symbolizes family reunion, and customs include admiring the moon, eating mooncakes, and playing with lanterns, implying family harmony and happiness.

Eating mooncakes

Playing with lanterns

Lunar September

Double Ninth Festival:

The ninth day of the ninth lunar month, now recognized as China's Elderly Day. Customs include climbing heights, admiring chrysanthemums, wearing dogwood, and eating Chongyang cakes, expressing respect for the elderly and praying for longevity and warding off evil.

Eating Chongyang cakes

Admiring chrysanthemums

Lunar December

Laba Festival:

The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, with customs like eating Laba porridge and pickling Laba garlic, marking the beginning of Spring Festival preparations.

Eating Laba Porridge

Pickling Laba garlic

Little New Year:

The 23rd or 24th day of the twelfth lunar month, a day for folk Kitchen God worship. People clean their homes and offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God, praying for family peace.

Offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God

New Year's Eve:

The last day of the lunar year, sometimes with 1 day off. Families gather for the reunion dinner, stay up late to welcome the new year, and usher in the Lunar New Year together.

Eat on new year's Eve

Chinese Cuisine

Chinese cuisine boasts a time-honored and profound cultural heritage, enjoying a high reputation worldwide. Here is a comprehensive introduction to Chinese food:

Shandong Cuisine (Lu Cai)

Originating from Shandong Province, it is the leading style among China's four traditional cuisines. Focused on ingredient quality and heat control, it uses salt to enhance freshness and soup to enrich flavor, emphasizing pure salty and fresh tastes that highlight the original essence of ingredients. Characteristics include: primarily salty and fresh flavors, meticulous heat management, expertise in soup preparation, skill in cooking seafood, diverse dishes, and emphasis on dining etiquette. Representative dishes: Sweet and Sour Yellow River Carp, Scallion-Fried Sea Cucumber, Nine-Turned Large Intestines.

Sweet And Sour Yellow Prawn Soup

Scallion-Fried Sea Cucumber

Nine-Turned Large Intestines

Sichuan Cuisine (Chuan Cai)

Rooted in the ancient Ba and Shu regions, it features homely dishes with wide-ranging ingredients, varied seasonings, diverse styles, and a reputation for spiciness and numbness. The basic flavors include six types: numbness, spiciness, sweetness, saltiness, sourness, and bitterness. Cooking techniques excel in quick-frying, pan-frying, dry-braising, and stir-drying, often using 'three peppers' (chili, Sichuan pepper, black pepper) and 'three aromatics' (scallion, ginger, garlic) to highlight characteristics. Representative dishes: Spicy Chicken, Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork, Mapo Tofu.

Spicy Chicken

Fish-Fragrant Shredded Pork

Mapo Tofu

Cantonese Cuisine (Yue Cai)

Originating from Lingnan, it uses ingredients meticulously and cleverly, emphasizing quality and taste, striving for freshness in simplicity and beauty in lightness. Flavors change with seasons—light in summer and autumn, rich in winter and spring. Cooking methods are diverse, with tastes dominated by clarity, freshness, tenderness, smoothness, crispness, and fragrance. Seasoning covers five textures (fragrant, crisp, tender, fatty, thick) and six flavors (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, fresh). Representative dishes: Steamed Seafood, White-Cut Chicken, Roast Goose.

Steamed Seafood

White-Cut Chicken

Roast Goose

Jiangsu Cuisine (Su Cai)

Originating from Jiangsu in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it emphasizes color matching and cooking techniques, focusing on braising, stewing, and simmering. It pursues clear, fresh, and mild flavors, prioritizing the original taste, with appropriate salt and slight sugar to harmonize flavors. Representative dishes: Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish, Stewed Pork Ball in Crab Sauce, Jinling Salted Duck.

Squirrel-Shaped Mandarin Fish

Stewed Pork Ball in Crab Sauce

Jinling Salted Duck

Fujian Cuisine (Min Cai)

Originating from Fuzhou, Fujian, it integrates flavors from eastern and southern Fujian. Paying attention to knife skills and heat, it features clear, fresh, mellow, and non-greasy tastes, focusing on bright colors and delicious flavors. Cooking excels in stir-frying, sliding, frying, braising, and steaming, with preferences for sweet, sour, and light flavors. It emphasizes soup preparation, known as "one soup, ten variations." Representative dishes: Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, Fuding Minced Meat Balls, Chicken Soup with Sea Clams.

Buddha Jumps Over the Wall

Fuding Minced Meat Balls

Chicken Soup with Sea Clams

Zhejiang Cuisine (Zhe Cai)

With a long history and rich cultural connotations, it showcases the food culture and local customs of Zhejiang. Focused on freshness, tenderness, and refreshingness with bright colors, cooking techniques include stir-frying, deep-frying, stewing, and braising, pursuing original flavors with characteristics of clarity, freshness, richness, and deliciousness. Representative dishes: Dongpo Pork, Longjing Shrimp, West Lake Vinegar Fish.

Dongpo Pork

Longjing Shrimp

West Lake Vinegar Fish

Anhui Cuisine (Hui Cai)

Originating from ancient Huizhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, it specializes in cooking wild mountain delicacies and pickled foods, with heavy oil and dark colors, focusing on heat control. Cooking techniques excel in braising, stewing, and steaming, with fewer stir-fried or explosive dishes. Representative dishes: Smelly Mandarin Fish, Mao Tofu, Yipin Pot.

Smelly Mandarin Fish

Mao Tofu

Yipin Pot

Local Snacks

Additionally, China Has Numerous Other Specialties, Such As: