One of the things We’ve really enjoyed in China is all the different street food. Pretty much everywhere you go there will be people on bikes or carts selling various snacks and simple, cheap food. You should be able to get a tasty lunch for around 20-40p from these street vendors. However there are various skills you will need to master, especially if you don’t speak the language, or you will no doubt get ripped off. So here’s my guide to what’s on offer, and how to pay the real price (or hopefully somewhere near it!).

The first thing you need to remember is that 9 times out of 10 if they can get away with it the sellers will try and over charge you. Don’t take this as an insult, it’s just the way things are. To be honest I don’t really blame them. Usually it’s the difference to you of paying 50p rather than 20p. They know you can probably afford it, might not know the real price and I imagine a lot of people wouldn’t bother to quibble over a few pence, so why not? The money probably makes a lot more difference to them than it does to you. Still if you’re on a budget, why pay more than you need to?

My first tip is always carry around a stack of 1 Yuan notes. When we first got these we were like “How ridiculous! A 10p note”, but after a few days we realised how handy these are. Try to keep around ten on you at any time.

One of the simplest ways to avoid paying over the odds is to wait around and watch. See how much other people are paying, then get the exact money ready and just hand them that. People usually won’t ask for more if they realise you know what’s going on. All the vendors seem to charge the same price for the same item, so after a few goes you will know how much everything is. There are only really a few different things on offer, and these same things are sold all over.

Learn a few words and numbers. We copied out the Mandarin for things like “how much is it”, “too expensive” and some numbers onto a sheet of paper we kept handy. It came in really useful. After being here nearly a month we have almost perfected being able to pronounce them properly, but it seriously has taken that long as using a slightly wrong tone makes what you are saying complete nonsense, so definitely having some things written is good.

For the numbers you actually won’t really need many. Most things are either 1, 2 or 3. People will usually show prices with their fingers if you’re confused (although this invariably adds at least 50% to the price). If someone tries to charge you 5 they are charging you too much. 5 seems to be the magic tourist price. Usually if they ask for five the best thing to do is say “Tai guile” “It’s too expensive” Offer them 2, maybe three. Usually they’ll say ok, but If they insist on 5 walk away. They will call you back.

Avoiding ordering things which contain meat can be fun. Most times we were never really sure if we’d got the message across properly until we’d bitten into what ever we’d bought. Luckily we seemed to do ok though. In fact we had a better meat avoidance record with street food than in restaurants. I think mostly this may be due to the fact that a lot of the street food is so cheap it would be impossible for it to contain meat though rather than it being due to our expert communication skills. Here are a few key phrases which may help you out:

This next rule is an absolute must for anything where you sit down, eat and pay later. Unless the price is clearly marked somewhere ie on a menu you’ve ordered from, always, always ask the price of every item you order. Make sure you are clear abut what you have agreed. Maybe ask them to write it down as sometimes the hand signals they make to describe numbers are very confusing to us. It has taken us the best part of a month to work them all out. For example 10 written in Chinese characters looks like a plus sign, so if something is 10 they might make a cross sign with their fingers which to them is an obvious way of signing 10, to us, means nothing at all.

Here’s how all the numbers are signed:

1 = little finger
2= index and middle finger
3= 3 fingers, from little to middle
4 = 4 fingers
5= 5 fingers
6= little finger and thumb
7= thumb touching index and middle finger, looks a bit like a duck
8= thumb up and index finger out, sign looks like a gun
9= hooked index finger
10= two index finger in the shape of a cross

We got caught out on this price checking at a street market in Qufu. We were doing so well. We ordered a mushroom hot pot which was 15Y, or around £1.50. Crazy cheap. We sat down, ordered a couple of beers. Had a chat with the guy who cooked our food. Well at least he was being friendly and amusing anyway, I wouldn’t really call it a chat. More like a game of charades. We were pretty happy sitting in his tent watching him cook our food and relaxing as the market went on around us. The food was really tasty, although this may be because as we found out half way through the meal what we thought was tofu was actually some kind of processed chicken meatball. Hmmm. Anyway.

Then his wife arrived. She started really yabbering on at him. Some sort of a argument developed. She walked off, he plonked himself down on a chair and wouldn’t look us in the eye again. We knew something was going on. We reconed he must have been having a go at him for not charging enough for the food. It really is standard practice to double the prices and there’s no way at 15Y for a huge meal for 2 that he could have. Then we realised. “We didn’t check the price of the beer. He’s going to overcharge us for the beer” It was obvious. Beers are usually around 6-12Y. We were paying 15 in nice restaurants in Beijing. At the most the bill should be around 45Y and that would be too much really. We asked for the bill. 80Y! Meaning he was trying to charge 30Y each for the beers.

This was a complete joke. There was no way we were paying it. Not quite ready for the dispute we still ended up paying 20Y each for them. Stupid really. It was totally our fault, but in a way I think you have to get caught out once to make you play the game. It taught us a lesson, but still I think it’s a shame for them too. Just before this we were saying how much we were enjoying the meal, that we’d probably eat there tomorrow too. I wonder if he realised that actually it lost him tomorrow’s money. Also I bet it’s exactly this kind of thing that puts people off eating in night markets at all and sends people running to McDonalds for the familiarity. It’s a real shame as I feel like this is the kind of experience that you really don’t get at home. So hopefully rather than our story putting you off, you can instead use our lesson to not get caught out yourself.

Another tip relating to the last is that if you do end up finding yourself in this situation the best thing to do it to try and slow it down a little. It can be easy to get caught up in a dispute and end up making rash decisions. Really there is no need. You can sit there all night if you want to, nothing bad is going to happen. So if someone tries this trick on you instead of reacting and arguing back, just relax sit back and decide what you want to happen. Think of how much you think is reasonable to pay then offer them a lot less. Your first offer should be something that puts the figure you really want to pay somewhere in the middle. For example if they are asking 30 for something you want to pay 15 for maybe start by offering 5. Remember they have just asked you for a ridiculous amount too. Pen and paper are usually necessary for this job. They write a number you laugh, shake your head, scribble it out then write anther number and so it goes on.

Now for the nice bit, the street food guide. By no means is this list exhaustive. There were several more things on offer. Lots of meat things (mostly little stick kebabs), but I can’t help you out there. We also only went to a few places in China and I’m sure different areas and cities all have their own specialities. If anyone has any more info on street food, including photos if possible I’d love to hear about it. Either leave a comment, or email me. I’d also be interested to know what prices people have paid for these or similar things. I’d especially like to hear from any locals. Although we managed to get lower prices on a lot of things I’m sure sometimes we were still paying a little over the odds.

I’ll start with what was one of my favorite snacks, filled pancakes. These came usually with stir fried finely shredded potato, a little carrot, cabbage and seasoning. Very simple ingredients combined to make a very tasty snack, and only 2Y. What a bargain! I’ll definitely be trying to recreate these when I get home. You can get other similar filled pancakes for the same price, for example we had some a filled with noodles, but I think the potato ones are the best.

This strange looking beast is actually some sort of vegetable, I think it’s something like a turnip (I don’t now what this was called, anyone got any idea?). The taste is like a mild radish crossed with a uncooked potato. You eat it raw and the experience is like snacking on a raw carrot. A good healthy option. Prices vary according to size. The vendor will either just look at you and make something up, or weigh it and then suggest a price. We paid 4Y for a medium sized one, which I am pretty sure was a bit too much.

I loved these yoghurts in Bejing! It’s just a little pot of plain yoghurt you can drink through a straw. They sell them at most small shops, the price will be either 2 or 3Y but there is also a deposit scheme on the clay pot it comes in which we didn’t manage to figure out. I think you can either exchange your empty pot for a filled one at a new shop and pay less or return to the shop you get it from and get 1Y back, but I’m not sure. Again any info appreciated.

These little buns were lovely. They are filled with a strange kind of noodle which has a sort of jelly consistency. The bun is first boiled in a big vat of water and then they are fried to crisp up the thin dough case. YUM. Cost 1Y each.

Sweet potatoes are standard street food all over the country. Most potatoes are big enough to make a meal in themselves. They’re pretty tasty although sometimes we found them a bit dry and craved a nob of butter to spread on them. Potatoes are charged by weight. You pick a potato and hand it to the seller who will weight it and price it up for you. Don’t be scared to start prodding/squeezing them to make sure it’s done enough for you, there’s no food hygiene paranoia here. A medium sized potato will be about 3-4Y.

Boiled eggs are very popular. You can get the ‘normal’ white boiled eggs that you’re used to at home, but better are the ones you’ll see in a big pot of boiling black liquid. We were too scared to try these for a while, thinking they were the 1000 year old eggs you may have heard of. We then found out they are just normal eggs boiled in tea. The tea gives the egg an amazing nutty flavour and I highly recommend trying them. I promise you’ll be converted. White boiled eggs are usually 1Y each, the tea flavoured ones can be a little more, we’ve paid 2 or sometimes 3Y.

Last but not least is another pancake variation. This time the pancake is bigger thicker and instead of potato or noodles it contains an egg which is cracked straight onto the half cooked pancake then spread around to cook it. It is then folded in half before sauce is spread on and a sprinkle of spring onions and chives thrown on. Then there’s a piece of crispy stuff(!?) that they lay across it then the whole thing is folded up to be served. These are amazing. Possible the best of the street food we tried. Also a whole one is easily enough for two people (they will chop it in half before serving). Price is 4Y so you can have your dinner for about 20p! Be warned though, the second time we went for them the assistant tried to charge us 8Y for the same thing. Tut. Cheeky monkey. Despite this attempt the pancakes still got an impressive 9 out of 10 from the panel of judges.

So that’s it so far for the street food in China, as I said I’m sure there’s lots more we haven’t tried and it would be great to hear from anyone with any more tips!