Sichuan can be degrees of spicy. At all the restaurants we ate at in Chengdu and Ya'an (in the Sichuan province) diners could request either "very spicy" or "not spicy at all", so you could all enjoy the same dish but to your spicy preference.

I'm afraid I didn't see lo mein, egg rolls, BBQ pork at all. That's not really "Chinese" food there. I had a stirfry but it was not like what you'd get or make at home, it had bamboo shoots, lotus root and some chicken or pork. But it was tasty and I enjoyed it. There were some great dumplings (almost like thin pasta pillows filled with veg or meats) and vegetable dishes (like green beans with red pepper, Chinese cabbage and onion) and other things I'd never think of having there, like one egg dish which was like scrambled eggs with tomato and onion chopped in it. I say go outside your comfort zone and try it rather than miss what you're used to. You might be surprised.

Thanks amyb,
I look forward to trying new dishes, except sppicy. I just didn't really know the difference between all the categories.

Much as I love Fodor's, I found Frommer's guidebook more helpful when it came to foods because it had much more information about local specialties. And it had the names of the dishes in both English and kanji, so I could use it to order. I ate wonderfully while in China, and it wasn't anything like what I've eaten in the US. Enjoy!

Many Sichuanese dishes use the Sichuan "Pepper" (Huajiao), which is actually not hot (and it's not related to the black pepper or hot pepper), but numbs your taste buds. It's Hunanese food that's really fiery hot (with hot pepper), and should be avoided by the OP.

China covers a large territory and has many nationalities, hence a variety of Chinese food with different but fantastic and mouthwatering flavor. Since China's local dishes have their own typical characteristics, generally, Chinese food can be roughly divided into eight regional cuisines, which has been widely accepted around. Certainly, there are many other local cuisines which are famous, such as Beijing Cuisine and Shanghai Cuisine.

1 Sichuan Cuisine, one of the most famous Chinese cuisines in the world.
Typical Courses: Hot Pot; Smoked Duck; Kung Pao Chicken; Twice Cooked Pork; Mapo Dofu

2 Guangdong Cuisine (Cantonese Cuisine)
Tasting clear, light, crisp and fresh, Guangdong cuisine, familiar to Westerners, usually chooses raptors and beasts to produce originative dishes. Its basic cooking techniques include roasting, stir-frying, sauteing, deep-frying, braising, stewing and steaming.
Typical Courses: Shark's Fin Soup; Steamed Sea Bass; Roasted Piglet

3 Hunan Cuisine
Hunan cuisine consists of local Cuisines of Xiangjiang Region, Dongting Lake and Xiangxi coteau. It characterizes itself by thick and pungent flavor. Chili, pepper and shallot are usually necessaries in this division.
Typical Courses: Dongan Chick; Peppery and Hot Chick

4 Shandong Cuisine
Consisting of Jinan cuisine and Jiaodong cuisine, Shandong cuisine, clear, pure and not greasy, is characterized by its emphasis on aroma, freshness, crispness and tenderness. Shallot and garlic are usually used as seasonings so Shangdong dishes tastes pungent usually. Soups are given much emphasis in Shangdong dishes. Thin soup features clear and fresh while creamy soup looks thick and tastes strong. Jinan cuisine is adept at deep-frying, grilling, frying and stir-frying while Jiaodong division is famous for cooking seafood with fresh and light taste.
Typical Courses: Bird's Nest Soup; the Yellow River Carp in Sweet and Sour sauce

5 Fujian Cuisine
Consisting of Fuzhou Cuisine, Quanzhou Cuisine and Xiamen Cuisine, Fujian Cuisine is distinguished for its choice seafood, beautiful color and magic taste of sweet, sour, salty and savory. The most distinct features are their 'pickled taste'.
Typical Courses: Buddha Jumping Over the Wall; Snow Chicken; Prawn with Dragon's Body and Phoenix's tail

6 Jiangsu Cuisine, also called Huaiyang Cuisine, is popular in the lower reach of the Yangtze River. Aquatics as the main ingredients, it stresses the freshness of materials. Its carving techniques are delicate, of which the melon carving technique is especially well known. Cooking techniques consist of stewing, braising, roasting, simmering, etc. The flavor of Huaiyang Cuisine is light, fresh and sweet and with delicate elegance.
Typical Courses: Stewed Crab with Clear Soup, Long-boiled and Dry-shredded Meat, Duck Triplet, Crystal Meat, Squirrel with Mandarin Fish, and Liangxi Crisp Eel

7 Zhejiang Cuisine
Comprising local cuisines of Hanzhou, Ningbo and Shaoxing, Zhejiang Cuisine, not greasy, wins its reputation for freshness, tenderness, softness, smoothness of its dishes with mellow fragrance. Hangzhou Cuisine is the most famous one among the three.
Typical Courses: Sour West Lake Fish, Longjing Shelled Shrimp, Beggar's Chicken

8 Anhui Cuisine
Anhui Cuisine chefs focus much more attention on the temperature in cooking and are good at braising and stewing. Often hams will be added to improve taste and sugar candy added to gain freshness.
Typical Courses: Stewed Snapper; Huangshan Braised Pigeon

You should have a try of every cuisine, you will find that every cuisine has its own flavor! Enjoy it!

Hi We returned from Beijing a few weeks ago. Found the food delicious. We had chow fun alot. It's wide rice noodles with beef and some vegs. Better than we have been getting it at home. We also had sweet/sour fish and pork another time. These are not spicy. We love eggplant dishes and had a new one in China, eggplant with minced pork and salty fish in a garlic sauce. When we found some spicy dishes, it was not as spicy as we get at home, whichdisappointed me a bit. Most of the restaurants we went to had at least a sheet of pictures with English translations. We went to a dumpling house and just took a chance with the pictures and bare descriptions, turned out to be great. Gound no lo mein etc, try to step out a bit from your comfort zone, you will enjoy it very much. I'm glad we live in ATL, where we have some very good authentic restaurants so we were not surprised in China. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks everyone. Wow, so much info Tour China. I do have to step out of my comfort zone a bit more I know. My husband will eat literally anything, but me, not so much. But I will try, I promise. Thanks again guys. Can't wait for our trip.

The type of foods related to the region. You will not find the US-style Chinese food there.
Eating will be quite cheap if you eat Chinese food. When in doubt, look inside. If it is busy then it must be good! The locals know better.
Westerners who are picky tend to like Yunnan food. There are some excellent retaurants in Beijing that serve excellent Yunnan food such as Middle 8, Dali Courtyard and Dianke Dianlai. Use this website to locate them: http://www.mobilenative.com/index.php

JPDeM,
Thank you soooo much. The food looks wonderful. That is a great site. I marked them on my map. Thanks again.
Michele

You might enjoy eating a restaurant that specializes in dumplings..In Beijing:Nzu Ge, near Forbidden City
In Shanghai: several locations, DTF Din Tai Fung..delicious!

Also a special restaurant in Beijing: XIHEYAJU, NE Corner of Ritan Park..
I usually eat the regional foods as I travel around the country.

Thanks HappyTrvlr, Will definitely go to DTF in Shanghai. Looks great.

NZu Ge was wonderful..duck dumplings for lunch and apple dumplings for dessert. It is on a street off Chang An, the main street, on right side of Forbidden City.

Here is report from my second trip to Shanghai, in 2010; there is lots of food-related detail if you care to wade through it; Shanghai is a fabulous eating city. A fabulous city all around, in fact.



http://www.fodors.com/community/asia/burma-shanghai-hong-kong-part-two-of-asian-odyssey-2010.cfm