When I was around 12 years old, my school organized a trip to China. I was already a vegetarian back then (my own choice) and I remember my Mum asking the teacher if it’s possible for me to go if I was a vegetarian. She said it’s no problem, I would just have to pick the meat out of my dishes. As you may have guessed, I decided not to go (turns out they had too little numbers and the whole trip got cancelled in the end anyway). Forward 13 years and I was in the same boat, figuring out if it would be possible to go to China and still find something to eat!
This post is my experience being a vegetarian in Beijing in 2019. It’s been quite a while since then and things may have changed there, so keep that in mind while reading this post.
The short answer to this post, is no, I didn’t really have that many options and I survived on a diet of broccoli and muffins (not together, that would be weird) from Starbucks. Let’s get into the details.
Are there vegetarian restaurants in Beijing, China?
There are actually vegetarian restaurants in Beijing! Before I went to China I did save a few veggie restaurants on Google (note once you are in China you can’t use Google Maps, it’s banned), but once we got there the opening times were slightly bizarre, they closed during the day for a small period, which was ok but they closed so early in the evening/late afternoon I wasn’t actually hungry until later in the evening and then it was too late. I didn’t end up going to any of them.
As I am writing this four years on, I did a quick google of veggie restaurants in Beijing and so many popped up! On further research it appears that a lot have closed down (sad times).
It is best to research it well before your trip, as well as checking the opening times.
So where can I eat?
The restaurant I ate the most at, was Din Tai Fung, if you’ve heard of the name before it’s because it is a chain restaurant, I usually like to eat at local restaurants when travelling, but as I was getting bored of my usual broccoli and a muffin, this place really did come in handy. They have a lot of veggie dumplings and if you have a sweet tooth you have to try the chocolate dumplings (dumplings with melted chocolate in the middle). I ate here about 4 times that week, the menu also shows clearly what is veggie. Another plus is that it’s a lot cheaper than the one in London 🙂
Another good option are hotels, we ended up going to the Mandarin Oriental one night for dinner just because they had veggie options (and were also careful with my peanut/nut allergy). Hotels are however usually more expensive than local restaurants.
My fails at finding veggie food
When I was there in 2019, they didn’t even have any panini/sandwich veggie options at Starbucks which I found super surprising considering it’s only Starbucks.
I tried a couple of times at ‘normal’ restaurants (ie not chains or veggie restaurants) to ask for things without meat and although they nodded at me, I always got a bowl full of meat.
My tips to help you not make the same mistakes I made
- Research all veggie restaurants and take note of the opening times, also plan it in my day when to go there/reserve a table if possible
- Go to Din Tai Fung at least 3 times (sorry but it’s just so good!)
- Book a hotel that includes breakfast, also with the option for dinner too
- Bring snacks e.g. protein bars for when you are on the go and can’t find anything (I did this and it was a life saver)
- Print out or have ready on your phone a chinese translation that says you are a vegetarian and cannot eat meat (unsure if this would actually help though)
- If in doubt the side dishes might be the safest bet – broccoli, rice or other vegetables.
My Experience in a nutshell
I was surprised at how hard it was to find vegetarian food, there weren’t many choices (if any) on menus and because not many people spoke English the communication was a big barrier. That being said, this was four years ago and I feel like the world in general has opened up more to vegetarianism and veganism, so maybe Beijing has more to offer today. I also wonder if other places such as Hong Kong have more veggie options (let me know in the comments if you know!).
I hope I could help you plan your trip with this post, I have another post about the Great Wall of China too, which I highly reccommend visiting if you are in China (it was the highlight of my trip).
If you are wondering about visiting any other countries while on a veggie diet then let me know below!
Thanks for reading,
Larissa
The Blonde Jetsetter
The Blonde Jetsetter 