Shanghai Cuisine
Shanghai does not have a definitive cuisine of its own, but refines those of the surrounding provinces (mostly from adjacent Jiangsu and Zhejiang coastal provinces). What can be called Shanghai cuisine is epitomized by the use of alcohol. Fish, eel, crab, and chicken are "drunken" with spirits and are briskly cooked/steamed or served raw. Salted meats and preserved vegetables are also commonly used to spice up the dish.

The use of sugar is common in Shanghainese cuisine and, especially when used in combination with soy sauce, effuses foods and sauces with a taste that is not so much sweet but rather savory. Non-natives tend to have difficulty identifying this usage of sugar and are often surprised when told of the "secret ingredient." The most notable dish of this type of cooking is "sweet and sour spare ribs" ("tangcu xiaopai" in Shanghainese).

Anhui Cuisine
Anhui cuisine is known for its use of wild game and herbs, both land and sea.

Beijing (Mandarin) Cuisine
Beijing cuisine has been influenced by culinary traditions from all over China.

Cantonese (Guangdong) Cuisine
Of the various regional styles of Chinese cuisine, Cantonese is the most well-known outside of China.

Fujian Cuisine
Fujian cuisine is famed for using seafoods, and for the visual presentation of its dishes.

Hunan Cuisine
Hunan cuisine is known for its hot spicy flavor, deep color and being dry hot, or purely hot. Hunan dishes are often more oily and look darker than Szechuan dishes.

Jiangsu Cuisine
Jiangsu cuisine's texture is characterized as soft, but not to the point of mushy or falling apart.

Shangdong Cuisine
Shangdong cuisine is characterized by seafood, with light tastes, also famed for its soup and utilizing soups in its dishes.

Szechuan (Sichuan) Cuisine
Szechwan (Sichuan) cuisine is known for being hot and numbing, because of the common ingredient Sichuan peppercorn, chilli, ginger and spicy herbs. This emphasis on spice may derive from the region's warm, humid climate.

Zhejiang Cuisine
Zhejiang cuisine is characterized in poultry, freshwater fish, seafood, and the utilization of bamboo shoots.