Many regional Chinese cooking styles are well represented in Shenzhen. Here are several to look out for.

Although this dish originates in China's tropical Hainan Province, it was a Shenzhen restaurant chain, Seasons Coconut Chicken, that helped make it famous around the world.

Shenzhen's sizeable population of Hakka people has added their own unique dishes and flavors to the region. Hakka food is rustic and straightforward, making extensive use of pork, tofu, soy sauce and rice.

Perhaps second only to Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, Shenzhen is an ideal place for first timers to try dim sum and classic Cantonese cooking. You can rely on Shenzhen's dim sum restaurants (many of them established chains originating in Guangzhou) to be spotless, well-run, affordable and have English menus, or failing that picture menus with a tick-box ordering system.