It can be seen by foreigners when you come to learn Chinese in China that dating from the primitive times to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the Huaxia people had been living in the north of the Yellow River regions, the long-standing foods in the North of China is still the mainstay of Chinese cuisines.
During the Warring States period, the kingdoms of Chu, Wu and Yue were gaining strength, which had contributed to people’s understanding of the Chinese foods in the south, and after you come to study Chinese in China, you would discover that there were books written by Quyuan giving brief account of the Chinese cuisines with south-flavor.
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the rulers were earnestly boosting the development of the frontiers, the Ba and Shu Kingdoms lying in the southwestern borders of the country received remarkable economical and cultural enhancement during that period, and foreign friends who’d been to China to study Mandarin in China would discover that the cuisines are no exception.
During the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420B.C-589B.C), the national great convergences had taken place; all the cooking styles and flavors had show their deep-going influences on the Su cuisines and the Zhe cuisines, which may also be quite an enjoyment for people who’d like to learn Chinese in China.
It is easily apprehensible for readers who’d like to study Chinese in China that the fast food of the Buddhism was gradually casting their influences upon the society with the introducing, popularization of the Buddhism as well as with the avocations of the Liangwu emperor of the Sui Dynasty, which had enabled the sustained development of the budding vegetarianism of the early periods of China.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, as well as the Five Dynasties period, the colorful and exquisitely designed food therapies were developed into a new stage, and the Song Dynasty had witnessed a boom in the development of Chinese cuisines, readers who’d like to study Mandarin in China would wonder about the scale of Chinese cuisines in the ancient China. It is therefore well-known by friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China that among the markets and stores in Bian’an and Lin’an cities, there were hundreds of types of foods with numerous cold, hot and colorful dishes, delicacies as well as soups.
Besides, when people come to study Chinese in China it is not hard to discover that during that period of time, the clear division of the North and South foods labeled in the markets indicates that the major schools of Chinese cuisines had taken shape during the Song Dynasty. The Chinese dishes got another big leap-forward during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Beijing city, which was the capital of those dynasties, had been widely borrowing from the merits and strengths of the cuisines around China to develop a school of its own. When foreign students had assigned for the Mandarin courses to study Mandarin in China, you can still be able to have a try on the Beijing food.
As well as the Lu cuisine was crowned to be the “the First of the Northern Cuisines of China”, in addition, as can be seen by friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China that due to the convergence of the Han nationality with other ethnic groups of China, the Moslem cuisines of the minority groups came to has its place in the Chinese cuisines with its unique flavor.
To study Mandarin in China, a school of food represents the local distinctive and traditional properties, and the local distinctive properties signifies the tastes of the local people, Zhanghua of the Jin Dynasty had written in his book Natural History stating that the people in the south and east prepared to eat the seafood without feeling the offensive fishy-smell, while the people in the north and west enjoys the land animals without conscious of the smell of mutton. However, foreign friends who’d like to study Chinese in China need to understand that China enjoys a vast territory and a great variety of Climates and eating habits has lead to the special preferences and requirements imposed on tastes by people in different regions.