They eat to keep healthy and live long. Winter diets include exotic ingredients to keep warm and preserve energy. Every food item, from bamboo shoots to bananas to ginger, has its known properties of heating or cooling which balance the body's natural forces. Herbal Tea . The art of tea drinking is quintessentially Chinese.
Tea is drunk for health, and is poured as an offering to friends.
It accompanies an everyday dim sum breakfast. The best way to learn about the many facets of this Chinese practice is to visit specialty tea shops or the popular Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware to learn the technique of proper tea brewing and sample choice potions. Qi is the life force. It flows through everything, say the Chinese. And you can control your Qi.