Catering is an important part of Chinese culture. Among the four life factors: dressing, eating, housing and commuting; eating occupies the first place. There is an old saying in China: “food is heaven.” Eating, from ancient times, is very important to Chinese people. When two Chinese people meet, they usually greet each other by saying “have you had your meal yet” instead of “how are you” or “good morning.” No matter whether it is a festival occasion or birthday party, communication of business or gathering of friends, eating together is a popular way of communication.

Due to the various natural conditions, living habits, developing conditions of economy and culture, people in different places of China form different flavors in catering and types of cuisine that gradually lead to the evolution of what is often called the “Four Flavors” and “Eight Cuisines”. Each cuisine system is closely related to its time-honored history and its unique cooking style, and is influenced by the regional physical geography, climate, natural resources and dining habits.

With the development of China’s economy and the improvement of general living standards, Chinese dishes become more and more sumptuous. Realizing the importance of the catering industry in increasing domestic demand and flourishing market, many local governments established relevant policies of accelerating the development of local economy with catering industry. Some catering industries with their unique characteristics include delicious food city, snacks street, catering festivals, etc., all gaining desirable results. Moreover, leisure catering, tourism catering, festival catering and holiday catering win the flavor of the people, which not only promote leisure activity and the consuming passion of the Chinese, but also accelerate the prosperity of market.

Supplemental Resources

Image by PierrickBlons, Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic, http://www.flickr.com/photos/pierrickblons/3097788265/