My interest in Chinese Cuisine goes back to the two months I spent in China studying Chinese language, in the summer of 2005. I had just graduated high school, it was my first trip outside the US, and at the time I was interested in doing business in China as a career. I spent a month in Beijing, and when I wasn't going to school or hanging out with the cool Chinese people and other foreign students, I was eating dumplings and Beijing duck, and attending 24-dish banquets in the honor of myself and the other students. After a month in school, I traveled to several other cities across China: Tianjin, where I ate gobuli baozi (giant dumplings) and fried dough snacks; Xian, where Muslim street food is delicious remnant of the end of the Silk Road; Chengdu, home to some ferociously fiery hot pot and Kung Pao Chicken; Kunming, city of the delicious "Across the Bridge" noodle soup; Guilin, the place to go for fish cooked in beer; and Shanghai, home of XiaoLongBao dumplings. China is a diverse country with many unique regional cuisines, and its people are friendly and welcoming to a young, foreign traveler.