There is a saying that people at the east like hot food, people at the west sour food, people at the south sweet food, and people at the north salted food. However, it is not an actually description about Chinese diet habits, but a general outline of Chinese diet custom.
In some provinces not located at the eastern part of china, like Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou, there is always a moist, frigid and rainy weather, causing a great humidity level which makes it hard to sweat. So people living under such environment eat hot pepper to harmonize their bodies. In the west of China, because there is lots of calcium in the water for its plateau topography, people, such as Shanxi people, have learnt to drink vinegar to avoid taking the disease of gall-stone. In the south, there has a weather of being rainy and full of light, providing a good condition of growing sugar cane. So people like to add some sugar into their food naturally. In the north, because the temperature changes greatly through the seasons, vegetables are hard to grow. In order to often eat vegetables, the northern people pickle vegetables with salt, and gradually they develop the habit of eating salted food.
The saying above shows that China’s climate differs from the north to the south and from the east to the west. This varied climate has deep influence on forming different geographic diet habits.
