Foodie Field Trip at Shanghai 2010 World Expo
created: 2010-05-24
The Expo Park is a place where you can indulge all your senses. You can both listen to the enchanting music of five continents and four oceans, and see beautiful scenes of art and culture from every corner of the globe.
The World Expo will also not fail to impress your tastes. With 128 restaurants dotted around the pavilions, the Expo Park is able to provide more than 400,000 meals every day. In addition to feeding a large number of visitors, the Expo vows to meet all tastes with selected delicacies from every part of the world.
Make sure to put food towards the top of your list as you visit the Expo Park. China's eight major cuisines are all well represented at the Expo; you can get hot and spicy Sichuan cuisine, delicately seasoned dishes from Anhui or a lightly flavored Cantonese meal. The international restaurants and cafes at the Expo are also ready to take you on a culinary journey.
With that in mind, check out our Chinese food guide below. Visitors should begin at the No. 6 Gate on Shangnan Road; this gate is close to the Expo Axis, the first stop on our foodie field trip.
The Expo Axis
The Expo Axis boasts 20 restaurants, approximately half of these are Chinese. There is the South Beauty, featuring high-end business cuisine; Chefkang, offering outstanding beef noodles; and Chamate, which specializes in Taiwanese food. For those who do not have time to enjoy a proper breakfast before their day at the Expo, the East Dawning restaurant located on the B1 floor of the Expo Axis Plaza offers a typical Chinese breakfast, featuring soy milk and steamed buns with a vegetable filling.
Compared to the eternally crowded restaurants on the first floor of the Expo Axis, the B1 floor is much more manageable.
The Gourmet Plaza in Zone B
Between the Expo Center and the Theme Pavilion in Pudong lies the Gourmet Plaza, which houses 20 restaurants. Entering through the east entrance of the Gourmet Plaza, you will find a row of restaurants on the right side; as you go deeper into the plaza you will be delighted to find a virtual heaven of Chinese cuisine; all eight of China's most famous cooking styles can be found here.
In order to fully showcase the charm of Chinese food, Expo organizers specifically set up a Chinese food "area" in Zone B. All eight varieties of Chinese food (Cantonese, Shandong, Fujian, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hunan styles) are available in this area.
The restaurants chosen to represent these eight styles are among the most renowned restaurants in the country. The Shanghai World Expo Bureau of Business Management Services said that the selection criteria stipulated authenticity and quality of service above all else.
Nearly all of the chefs and waitstaff at these restaurants hail from the region whose cuisine the restaurant features. In addition, some of the ingredients for the dishes are imported from the regions where the dishes originated.
The Chinese Cuisine Collection in Zone B
The Chinese Cuisine Collection is located in a gray two-story building on the west side of the Gourmet Plaza. Visitors here can find dishes from all 33 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China. As the food is cheap here, this is the best stop for the budget-conscious consumer.
The first floor of the building serves dishes from the western area of China, such as Lanzhou hand-pulled beef noodles and Xinjiang cuisine. Gourmet dishes from other provinces can be found on the west side of the first and second floors.
Chinese fast food in Zone C
Zone C is mainly home to foreign pavilions; however, there are some excellent Chinese fast food restaurants in this area as well. Uncle Fast Food, King Roast Duck and Cang Lang Ting restaurants can all be found here. The cold noodles with sesame sauce offered by Cang Lang Ting is popular with visitors; this dish is both delicious and inexpensive.
Puxi fast food
There are only two zones in the Puxi area, so the number of visitors is relatively small. The restaurants in the Puxi area mainly serve fast food. Lihua Fast Food, Kungfu, Wu Fang Zhai, and Yonho Soybean are all located here. Wu Fang Zhai's rice dumplings are the cheapest food in the entire Park; you can buy these gems for the unprincely sum of six yuan ($.88).
Chinese restaurants representing eight major cuisines (Cantonese, Shandong, Fujian, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui and Hunan styles) in Zone B
Restaurant: De Yue Lou
Jiangsu cuisine
Classic dishes
Jiangsu-style smoked fish (32 yuan)
Cerise pork (70 yuan)
De Yue spring chicken (60 yuan)
Pork stir-fry with shrimp (80 yuan)
Squirrel-shaped mandarin fish (168 yuan)
Average price per person : 60-100 yuan
Restaurant: Zhi Wei Guan
Zhejiang cuisine
Classic dishes
Zhi Wei steamed stuffed bun (12 yuan)
Baked spring chicken (68 yuan)
Shrimp stir-fry with eel back (48 yuan)
Hangzhou-style duck (32 yuan )
Shrimp stir-fry with longjing tea (88 yuan)
Average price per person: 50-100 yuan
Restaurant: Tong Qing Lou
Anhui cuisine
Classic dishes:
Huangshan mushrooms (58 yuan)
Huangshan mandarin fish (148 yuan)
Huizhou dried tofu (28 yuan)
Steamed lapmei (68 yuan)
Steamed bun stuffed with juicy pork (38 yuan )
Average price per person: 50-150 yuan
Restaurant: Nam San Ya
Fujian cuisine
Classic dishes:
Seafood buffet
Steamed abalone with shark's fin and fish maw
Stewed pork meatballs
Beef stir-fry with black pepper
Average price per person: 120 yuan
Restaurant: Confucian Banquet
Shandong cuisine
Classic dishes:
Confucian soup (38 yuan)
Shrimp stir-fry with tea (98 yuan)
Spicy baby squid stir-fry (68 yuan)
Scrambled eggs with shrimp sauce (38 yuan)
Average price per person: 100-150 yuan
Sautéed sea cucumber with scallions (380 yuan)
Restaurant: Hua Tian
Hunan cuisine
Classic dishes:
Steamed fish head with diced hot red peppers
Mao braised pork (98 yuan)
Steamed dried pork (128 yuan)
Dried tofu stir-fry
Average price per person: 80-100 yuan
Classic dishes:
Marinated goose head (280 yuan)
Marinated goose wing (48 yuan)
Shark's lip and sea cucumber stew (68 yuan)
Premium congee
Average price per person: 300 yuan
Restaurant: Sichuan Folk
Sichuan cuisine
Classic dishes:
Beef in hot chili oil (80 yuan)
Steamed pork slices with rice flour (60 yuan)
Braised crabmeat with corn (480 yuan)
Braised pork
Average price per person: 100-150 yuan
Note: 1 yuan = about $.15
Recommended China Guide:
