Vistor Notes:
Subject: 'my vegan and vegetarian china travel tips'
Posted by sebbacon on: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 05:57 AM PST
I spent about 3 months in China and managed to eat very well. Of course I had some problems but overall it was one of the best countries to be vegan in that I've visited. I've written about my vegan travel experiences here
Subject: 'Soy Milk'
Posted by Guest on: Monday, February 20, 2006 at 03:43 AM PST
I grew up in China. Soy milk in Chinese is Do Jiang. (Soy Drink) 99.99999% of the time it doesn't have milk products in it. If you ask for 'Do Nai' it will probably have some milk in it because folks in China don't refer to the soy beverage as any sort of milk or milk substitute. BTW, it would be wise to actually learn the langauge people speak there.
Subject: 'Tips on being vegan in China'
Posted by Guest on: Thursday, December 08, 2005 at 10:12 PM PST
ATTENTION VEGANS!! Soy milk is said 'dough-nai', but you really have to emphasize the dough. Also, not all soy milk is vegan!! In fact, all soy milks with English labeling we found had real milk in them, and lactose or similar could easily be added to "100% soymilk" because they just do that for whatever reason. Alas we could never covey this with our poor mandarin, and didn't find this out until the end of our trip. Be very wary of vegetable milks (also they just don't taste good).
Also - Whenever you get to a new city, immediately ask Hotel staff about English speaking 'city' magazines or restaurant listings such as "That's Beijing", "City Weekend", etc. They usually have a Vegetarian listing in the restaurant section that is somewhat up-to-date. I can't speak mandarin but people understood 'Woo chi tsu' (I'm vegetarian', 'Wo bo-yow no-nai' (I don't want milk), 'Wo bo-yow jee-dawn'(I don't want egg). If staff say 'mayo jidan', that means it doesn't have eggs. A simple 'dong-ma' (do you understand?) is difficult because they don't always reply a simple yes or no (dui/bushi). Also, dialects switch many consonants, such as 'l' and 'n', it's crazy. So milk is sometimes no-nai, or sometimes lo-lai. It is very difficult... be creative and be prepared.
