README.adoc

Western people don't know what good Chinese food is, so if you are not in a place that has a very large Chinese population, real Chinese food restaurants cannot survive, and won't exist. This usually implies being in large cities of rich countries.

Beware of restaurant owner changes: if the menu looks a bit different, it has likely happened.

This is politically incorrect, but here goes: if the place looks as if it is maintained by more recent immigrants, and looks more modern, it is more likely to be good. There are however some venerable older uncles who have cooked well their entire lives and are still fine. Things tend water down across generations, and there was likely not enough real Chinese clientele for them to serve real Chinese food and survive in the past.

If a restaurant advertises itself as "Asian", it is less likely to be very good.

Conversely, restaurants that specialize in a single region of China are more likely to be good (bot not certainly good).

It is already difficult to do the cuisine for one part of China well, imagine for multiple countries.

Just beware of "Sichuan" restaurants: their cuisine is so well known even in the West that I've seen many not so good restaurants that describe themselves like that, even if the owners are from another region. But there are many good ones which really are from there as well.

[[resturants--similar-lists]]
==== Similar lists

[[resturants--how-to-order]]
==== How to order

For all restaurants, ask the waiter for suggestions. Tell him that you:

* want the most typical dishes, not what the foreign locals eat, but what the Chinese eat
* can eat spicy food, way more than any foreign local person can.
+
The spice level you generally want is is "zhong1 la2" (medium spicy)
+
If you can't eat spicy, either learn or stop reading now and accept the fact that you will never eat good Chinese food.
* if the restaurant is from some region, ask for dishes from the region, and which are different from other regions.
+
I was once given https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozi[jiaozi] (super popular dish everywhere in China which I buy frozen and eat every 3 days) in a Tibetan restaurant... Yes, I do believe Tibetans also eat jiaozi! :-)
* Speaking a little Chinese goes a long way towards convincing the owners that you can handle the real thing.

Only order dishes with meat. Those without are not worth the money / time. Aubergine is the exception.

[[restaurants--france]]
=== France 法国

Traiteurs are simpler restaurants that let you see pre-made foods in a glass showcase for you to choose how big your portions will be.

They are the best way to eat a cheap and balanced meal in Paris, but I have never found one that serves exceptional Chinese food, so beware.

[[restaurants--france--paris]]
==== Paris 巴黎

Paris has one of the largest Chinese communities outside of China in the whole world centered in the 14eme arrondissement, plus a lot of Chinese students with money around.

As a result, you can find some of the best Chinese food in the world outside of China!

Bibilography:

* http://carnetdecroute.blogspot.fr
* http://cnkick.net/2013/09/10/les-meilleurs-restaurants-chinois-de-paris-le-guide-cn-kick/
* https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-Chinese-restaurants-in-Paris
* http://www.newsavour.com/restaurants/ Chinese only, Paris, website subsidiary of some larger Chinese group.

* Restaurant Sichuan (川里川外)
+
17 Rue le Peletier, 75009 Paris
+
Xianglaxie.
+
Last checked: 2017/06
* Chez Yong (Ding Ding Xiang, 鼎鼎香)
+
42, rue de la Colonie, 75013 Paris
+
** shui zhu niu rou
** dishes with intestines
* La Chine sur la langue (舌尖美味)
+
163 rue Saint-Denis, 75002 Paris
+
** Spicy soup with Chinese charcuteries. Ma la tang.
** Large dry and thin bread. Jing dong da bing. 京东大饼. http://www.nipic.com/show/1/55/7885c266f22649ae.html[Picture].
* Quatre Amis (那家小馆)
+
29 rue de Charenton, 75012 Paris
+
--
** Fried octopus
** Shui zhu niu rou
** Anything with intestines
--
* Le Céleste Gourmand (福来居, fu lai ju)
+
8 Rue de la Tacherie, 75004 Paris
* L'Orient d'Or (福源丰)
+
22, Rue de trévise, 75009 Paris
+
--
** Galettes croustillantes au canard (xiang su ya dai bing, 香酥鸭带饼)
** Poisson pimentee (suan tang yu, 酸汤鱼)
** Soupe aux cartilages de porc avec algues (hai dai pau gu tang, 海带排骨汤)
--
+
Hunan style.
+
25 euros / person.
* Carnet de Route
+
57 Rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 75009 Paris
+
Last checked: 2016/04
* 0 d'Attente (锅先生不等位)
+
55 Boulevard Saint Marcel, 75013 Paris
+
+33 9 81 49 68 06
+
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d6984996-Reviews-0_d_Attente-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
+
Like style of chairs and cutlery.
+
Ironically, the service was not particularly fast as the name indicates. Normal, but not ultra fast as I imagined :-)
+
lotus with rice (Nuo mi tang ou) and boeuf sechee (guo xian sheng ...) not very good, but baked fish and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigan_cai kaorou were great.
+
Last checked: 2016/02
* Autour du Yangtse (食尚煮意)
+
12 Rue du Helder, 75009 Paris
+
--
** Marmite de poisson et de tofu (豆花鱼)
** Saliva chiken (口水鸡)
** Aubergines farcies sur plaqua chauffante (铁板脆皮茄)
--
+
http://www.autourduyangtse.com/
* Deux Fois Plus De Piment (绝代双椒)
+
Address: 33 Rue Saint-Sébastien, 75011 Paris
+
Sichuan style.
* Délices de Shandong (山东小馆)
+
88 Boulevard de l'Hôpital, 75013 Paris
* Hakka Home
+
3 Rue Voltaire, 75011 Paris
+
Food from the Hakka people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_people
+
Most dishes are like other good Chinese restaurants in Paris, but there were a few different ones.
* Maison Dong (东馆)
+
36 Rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris
+
Last checked: 2017/04
* Royal Tching Tao (青岛人家)
+
8 Rue du Bel-Air, 75012 Paris
+
** Galettes croustillantes au canard. Shi zi tou.
** Sweet fish （Song shu gui yu 松鼠桂鱼)
* Le Pont de Yunnan (滋味云南)
+
15 Rue Notre Dame de Lorette, 75009
+
Great food, but we had a bad service experience: got kicked out too early, even with a reservation.
* Tien Hiang (天香)
+
14, rue Bichat, 75010 Paris
+
Vegetarian food: most dishes are an imitation of a dish with meat.
+
Not as good as the original meat for me, but very interesting and good for a change.
+
Chinese vegetarians are rare. In theory, the origin of the food in this restaurant is Hong Kong Buddhism (Buddhist monks cannot eat meat, while other believers can.)
* Likafo (利口福酒家)
+
39 Avenue de Choisy, 75013 Paris
+
https://www.facebook.com/pages/LIKAFO-%E5%88%A9%E5%8F%A3%E7%A6%8F%E9%85%92%E5%AE%B6/139814799396
+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meigan_cai[Meigan cai] roast pork (梅菜扣肉) http://img.epochtimes.com/i6/901120923161469.jpg
* Restaurant Sichuan (四川人家)
+
31-33 Rue Descartes, 75005 Paris
+
Perfect Fuqi feipian.
+
Huiguorou is good not my style, I prefer with leek.
+
Last checked: 2017/04

[[resturants--france--paris--tier-2]]
===== Paris tier 2

Cheaper / simpler restaurants that are really worth it if you want to not be hungry, but not worth it if you want eat exceptional food:

* Ace Boucherie
+
58 Rue Sainte-Anne, 75002 Paris
+
Korean take-away traiteur. Very good. Try calamar.
+
Last checked: 2017/06
* Ji Bai He
+
108 Rue Olivier de Serres, 75015 Paris
+
Jiaozi and accompanying small dishes are great.
+
Last checked: 2016/03
* SUCREPICE
+
5 Rue d'Arras, 75005 Paris
+
M10: Cardinal Lemoine
+
Liang ban mian, but do ask "wei la, they are strong.
* Noodle No 1
+
54 rue Sainte Anne, 75002 Paris
+
--
** Soupe aux nouilles pimentées
--
* Noodle bar
+
31 Rue nationale, 75013 Paris, France
* Chez Shen
+
39 Rue au Maire, 75003 Paris, France
* Dosanko Larmen
+
40 Rue Sainte-Anne, 75002 Paris
+
Order big portion at your own risk. :-)
+
Last checked: 2017/04
* Chez Mamie (外婆家)
+
18 Rue du Grenier-Saint-Lazare, 75003 Paris,
+
Last checked: 2017/06

[[resturants--france--marseille]]
==== Marseille 马赛

* Shanghai kitchen
+
14 Cours Jean Ballard, 13001 Marseille, France

[[restaurants--uk]]
=== United Kingdom 英国

Bibilography:

* https://www.honglingjin.co.uk/category/foods-and-restaurants-in-the-uk/chinese-restaurants

[[restaurants--uk--london]]
==== London 伦敦

[[restaurants--uk--london--little-wooden-hut]]
===== Little Wooden Hut 小木屋

Address:

....
Little Newport Street
WC2H 7JJ
....

Last checked: 2016/08

Not yet on Google maps so I don know the number, but the street is very small so should be easy to find.

Chinese review: http://www.ukchinese.com/News/2016-05-07/15299.html

[[resturants--uk--london--murger-han]]
===== Murger han

Address:

....
8A Sackville St
Mayfair, London
W1S 3EZ
....

Website: http://www.murgerhan.com/

Last checked: 2019/01

Cuisine: Xi'an

Biangbiang noodles with all extras zhongla is amazing!!! Niuroupaomo OK, but not exciting. Roujiamo not very interesting, too bland for my taste.

[[resturants--uk--london--tier-2]]
===== London tier 2

[[restaurants--uk--london--chinese-tapas-house-london]]
====== Chinese Tapas House

Address:

....
Little Newport Street
WC2H 7JJ
....

Not yet on Google maps so I don know the number, but the street is very small so should be easy to find.

Jianbing guozi, interesting spicy fast food.

[[restaurants--uk--london--rice-coming-restaurant]]
====== Rice Coming Restaurant 米齐临

Rice noodles are good, and small dishes authentic.

Address: 10A Coptic St, Holborn, London WC1A 1NH

Last checked: 2019-04

Website: https://ricecoming.business.site/

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge]]
==== Cambridge 剑桥

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--spring-restaurant]]
===== Spring Restaurant 春天

Address:

....
66 Mill Rd
CB1 2AS
....

Last checked: 2017/08

Spicy chicken with pasta and potatoes.

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--seven-days]]
===== Seven Days 天天美食剑桥

Address:

....
66 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

[[resturants--uk--cambridge--72-china]]
===== @72 China

Address:

....
72 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

Douhuaniurou 豆花牛肉, kaoyu.

[[resturants--uk--cambridge--golden-house]]
===== Golden House

Address:

....
12 Lensfield Rd
CB2 1EG
....

Meicaikourou, luobo bing.

[[restaurants--uk--cambridge--1-1-rougamo]]
===== 1 + 1 Rougamo

Tier: 2

Address:

....
84 Regent St
CB2 1DP
....

Last checked: 2019/05

Roujiamo very good. Also good: broad noodles, 凉皮.

[[restaurants--uk--oxford]]
==== Oxford 牛津

[[restaurants--uk--oxford--a-taste-of-china]]
===== A Taste Of China 三秦百味

Tier: 2

https://goo.gl/maps/oERKCv6Q8a32

Last checked: 2019/03

Redamian good, Biangbiangmian not as interesting. Nice people working there. Two two seat tables only, mostly takeaway. Fair price.

[[restaurants--uk--oxford--xi-an]]
===== Xi'an

Tier: 3

https://goo.gl/maps/DrDCPKWnG2M2

Last checked: 2019/03

Not real Chinese food I'm afraid. Songshuyu not cut correctly into stripes and too much liquid sauce. Sijidou beans not dry enough, maybe need more frying. Early immigration (1968, mentioned on menu), almost no Chinese clients. Nice decoration and environment.

[[restaurants--uk--sheffield]]
==== Sheffield 谢菲尔德

* China Red Restaurant
+
3 Rockingham Gate, Sheffield S1 4JD, United Kingdom
+
Last checked: 2016/06, shuizhuyu.

[[restaurants--brazil]]
=== Brazil 巴西

[[restaurants--brazil--sao-paulo]]
==== Sao Paulo 圣保罗

* Chuanxiangyuan Restaurante (川香园餐馆 )
+
\R. Barão de Iguape, 47 - Liberdade, São Paulo - SP
+
Eat the big fish dishes, they are worth it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuqi_feipian was not very good.
+
Free tea was good.
+
Rice could be better.
+
Owners are actually from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin , not Sichuan, as implied by the 川 in the name of the restaurant. GF told me that those big fish dishes are typical from there.
+
Last checked: 2016/01/09

[[restaurants--canada]]
=== Canada 加拿大

[[restaurants--canada--montreal]]
==== Montreal 加拿大蒙特利尔，

Last checked: 2016/01

* Cuisine Szechuan
+
2350 Rue Guy, Montréal, QC H3H 2M2, Canada
* Kanbai
+
1110 Rue Clark, Montréal, QC H2Z 1K3, Canada Good
* Délice oriental
+
1858 Rue Ste-Catherine O, Montréal, QC H3H 1M1

Not worth it:

* Chez Chili
+
1050B rue Clark

== Other interesting GitHub information repositories

* taibangle 太棒了
** https://github.com/taibangle/awesome-china
** https://github.com/taibangle/lennon-wall

== Git mirrors of this repository

The cool thing about Git is that we can maintain several mirrors on multiple websites very easily:

* https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship Canonical source
* https://gitlab.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship Maybe some day http://gitlab.cn/ ? :-)
* https://bitbucket.org/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship

Update all mirrors with: link:push-mirrors[]

== Backlinks to this repository

Or to Ciro's other online presences, due to China activity.

For Zhihu backlinks, see: <<zhihu-questions-related-to-ciro-santilli>>.

* 2019-10-31: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6595454363743981568/ (http://web.archive.org/web/20191101094814/https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6595454363743981568/[archive]) "Good rundown of all the major news from China you don't see. Notice how you don't see anything about the Hong Kong protests anymore?"
* 2019-10-30: https://www.pincong.rocks/question/id-10294__sort_key-agree_count__sort-ASC (http://web.archive.org/web/20191101091242/https://www.pincong.rocks/question/id-10294__sort_key-agree_count__sort-ASC[archive]) "怎么让大陆把 Github 墙了？" How to get GitHub blocked by the Firewall? OP apparently really wants to block it? If yes, <<so-block-cost,LOL>>. Trigerred by some 2019-10 <<notepad>> activity.
* 2019-10 https://github.com/kon9chunkit/GitHub-Chinese-Top-Charts/blob/7131e2c1158a806f41c8f55308977048b02d2959/README-Part2.md Automatically generated list of repos with Chinese characters in their descriptions with the most upvotes per programming language. TODO why is this repo on their README-Part2 only? Has more stars than some stuff on main README.
* 2019-10-12: https://hacpai.com/article/1570686552645 Login required, cowards. Post title: "更新 GitHub 官方 Repo 的人，竟然是个反华分子". Manual page dump after my replies with links to this FAQ: https://ia801505.us.archive.org/27/items/cirosantilli/hacpai_1570686552645.html OP then deleted my comments because they don't speak English "HacPai 是个文明的社区，不会发生辱骂的现象，你有你的观点，我们有我们的观点。但抱歉，我们的水平有限，没有阅读英文的能力，还请发送有效回复，否则只能折叠处理". It is some developper website: https://hacpai.com/article/1440573175609 (https://web.archive.org/web/20190811205230/https://hacpai.com/article/1440573175609[archive]) linked to https://github.com/b3log/solo[]. OP then made an useless post here: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/70 As of 2019-10-12, I can't login there anymore, either because the website is shitty, or I was blocked. GitHub login just fails silently, cannot reset password. If blocked, cowards. This led me to update: <<reply-policy>> with the canned reply.
* 2019-09: https://admin.github.com Someone from GitHub has been thinking about us. s2 to you.
* "https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/thoughts-github-going-china-kevin-xu/" https://twitter.com/sang_what/status/1172692888766959619 (http://archive.is/taPpH[archive]) https://t.co/qag5ekL12F
* 2019-06: https://gking.harvard.edu/ interesting. OK, likely due to: https://gking.harvard.edu/category/research-interests/applications/information-control-by-authoritarian-governments but no direct links found though.
* 2019-05: someone used the FAQ to answer a question: https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/bt1mth/if_i_disappear_chinese_students_make_farewell/eou5a5q/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20190527072431/https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/bt1mth/if_i_disappear_chinese_students_make_farewell/eou5a5q/ "‘If I disappear’: Chinese students make farewell messages amid crackdowns over labor activism"
* 2019-04-10: https://twitter.com/jnzst/status/1115824398961913857 gGTYgFulPg
** https://twitter.com/jnzst/status/1111395254408613888
* 2019-04-09: https://pincong.rocks/question/3383 | http://web.archive.org/web/20190413063930/https://pincong.rocks/question/3383 "【小众问题】为何 Stack Overflow 2019 开发者调查报告中，来自中国的开发者最为积极乐观？"
** 2019-05: https://community.riskiq.com/search/pincong.rocks pingcong people deciding if they should ban me? :-) commented there once: https://pincong.rocks/question/3383 | http://web.archive.org/web/20190527072431/https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/bt1mth/if_i_disappear_chinese_students_make_farewell/eou5a5q/http://web.archive.org/web/20190413063930/https://pincong.rocks/question/3383 This also suggests that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RiskIQ helps censorship in China
* 2019-01-10: https://twitter.com/ninoseki/statuses/1083512317952704512 | http://archive.is/vCwep 1300 followers.
* 2018-08: https://www.reddit.com/r/CCJ2/comments/93klir/moron_tries_to_dismantle_chinese_government_by | http://archive.is/HtYng "moron tries to dismantle chinese government by putting a few moon runes on some websites" Peak of 100 unique visitors / day from base rate of 5
** led to: https://lihkg.com/thread/762440/page/1 | http://archive.is/7REOi "佢個個人home page好多5毛留言, 唔知會唔會搞到block堆stackoverflow"
* 2018-07: http://4-ch.net/general/kareha.pl/1531480621/l50 | http://web.archive.org/web/20180815081351/http://4-ch.net/general/kareha.pl/1531480621/l50 "No more Xi Jinping"
* 2018-06: http://medarc.org/pac.txt | https://web.archive.org/web/20180712094944/http://medarc.org/pac.txt puts cirosantilli.com in a blacklist containing the likes of asianpiss.com and clearwisdom.net. Awesome. Then I grepped the main one https://github.com/gfwlist/gfwlist with `while true; do git checkout HEAD~; if ! base64 -d gfwlist.txt | grep -q cirosan; then break; fi; done` and found that I was added in 24a6f6f29e24d1d7eb27946bf51d7a072ddb3e6d Tue Apr 24 2018. That is input data for https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/autoproxy/ which turns on a proxy only for certain websites. Therefore that is a definitive list of interesting stuff. I wonder how it is curated.
* 2018-06: https://greasyfork.org/zh-CN/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8 "StackOverflow净化器"
** https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8 JavaSript script to hide my username on SO! Nice.
** github user with the same username: https://github.com/EternalPhane
** http://web.archive.org/web/20181211094818/https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/32236-stackoverflow%E5%87%80%E5%8C%96%E5%99%A8
** http://web.archive.org/web/20181211094917/https://greasyfork.org/en/forum/discussion/47981
* 2018-05: a few hits from https://chinadigitaltimes.net but Google cannot find any links
* 2018-05-20:
** https://www.1point3acres.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=425684 Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20190701085047/https://www.1point3acres.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=425684
** http://web.archive.org/web/20180520210006/http://www.1point3acres.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=425684&pid=3954113&page=1&extra=
* 2018-04-13: traffic peak, but no linkbacks. Many new Chinese followers, but few new stars on this repo, maybe they are afraid to star? Also someone (bot?) subscribed me to a hundred GovDelivery mailing lists, possibly linked? I also blocked an user from on GitHub due to impolite post. Also possibly linked to me posting a link to the FAQ more clearly on my home page recently: https://github.com/cirosantilli/cirosantilli.github.io/commit/f31d1651c0e7fef587e5910ff2dc1e2aba9a5763
* 2018-03-11: got a large traffic peak (60 vs 10 average), but no linkbacks to match. Likely source: parcerier pinged me at: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267715/is-stack-overflow-accessible-in-china/267723#comment562812_288497 and I revamped the and FAQ replied with https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267715/is-stack-overflow-accessible-in-china/267723#comment562840_320914 Someone also made: http://archive.is/jcZCA which points to: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/267715/is-stack-overflow-accessible-in-china/267723#comment562810_267723 . This issue was opened that day as well: https://github.com/cirosantilli/china-dictatorship/issues/12
* 2018-01: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&context=cs_etds this site appears on the reference of a PhD thesis paper haha, links to complete-gfw-rulebook-for-wikipedia-v3.0.pdf.
* 2017-05: https://t.co/AosRq06akz TODO where from. "Measuring Decentralization of Chinese Censorship in Three Industry Segments" by Jeffrey Knockel. Now at Citizenlab: https://www.cs.unm.edu/~jeffk/
* 2015-12-23: https://v2ex.com/t/245507 (link:https://github.com/cirosantilli/media/blob/9f7b07e915c4638d45a1b4922ba95c61e2ef87dc/webpages/v2ex-2015-12.html[Chromium CTRL-S save]) "搜 StackOverflow，无意间发现了这个，重点在那个评论" by https://v2ex.com/member/happypy1
* 2015-09-03: (deleted) http://www.weibo.com/2014703917/Cyc1gFt7A This is the user: http://www.weibo.com/2014703917 There have also been accesses from link:http://weibo.cn/sinaurl[], but I don't know what that means.
* 2015-08-03: 21 visitor Facebook peak, can't find source
* 2015-06-20: (deleted) link:https://www.plurk.com/p/l1jjn4[] Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20150918110032/https://www.plurk.com/p/l1jjn4 "這阿豆阿的名字XDD" by https://www.plurk.com/m/u/cyuanXD
* 2015-05-30: https://twitter.com/ZhouFengSuo/status/604461488716144640 (http://archive.is/8d2lt[archive]) 36K followers at the time. "The commies have messed with the wrong guy's mother-in-law.". That is apparently the account of a famous <<tiananmen>> protester: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhou_Fengsuo[Zhou Fengsuo (周锋锁)]
* 2015-04-10: https://v2ex.com/t/182766 (cannot archive, login requires CAPTCHA, link:https://github.com/cirosantilli/media/blob/9f7b07e915c4638d45a1b4922ba95c61e2ef87dc/webpages/v2ex-2015-04.html[Chromium CTRL-S save]) "Stack Overflow 上看到一个丧心病狂的程序员" by https://v2ex.com/member/cloudhunter

== Other sections

TODO migrate all into this README.

. link:censorship.md[Censorship]
. link:media.md[Media]
. link:dissidents.md[Dissidents]
. link:movements.md[Movements against the Dictatorship]
. link:images/[Images]
. link:policies.md[Policies]
. link:stack-overflow.md[Stack Overflow]
. link:stack-overflow-profile.md[Stack Overflow profile]
. Personal
.. link:communities-that-censor-politics.md[Communities that censor politics]