Real Chinese Food

Prior to my arrival and first authentic Chinese meal, I was expecting to eat general tso’s chicken with rice and a fortune cookie for a week straight. I thought the food was going to be similar to the Chinese American cuisine that I am used to eating but I was sadly mistaken. I never realized that Chinese food is actually very exotic. Each meal has an equal balance of meats, vegetables, fruits, and grain and smells like sesame. Unfortunately for me, each meal also has a lot of fish. Most meals also had a lot of pork as well as many exotic fruits and vegetables that I never heard of, like the lotus root. And every meal was eaten in chopsticks, of course.
At every meal the servers would bring out many different dishes and put them on a spinning dish at the center of the table and fill up our cups with tea. The spinning dish would soon be over flowing with all different types of meats and vegetable dishes. The Chinese are eating machines it seemed like and they expected us to keep up so they kept bringing out dish after dish. They served different types of pork, whole chickens, many different types of fish, dumplings, tofu, many exotic vegetables, different types of vegetable and/or meat soups, as well as rice. Each meal had its own different exotic foods. Apparently, China has the most vegetables in the world. I can recall several fish dishes that did not look too appealing to me, like pig’s blood soup, seaweed, and other dishes that I did not even know the names. All of which, smelled like sesame. The one thing each meal was lacking was cheese.
On the streets I saw the most exotic foods yet: chicken feet, pig’s heads and ears, and the list goes on. After experiencing authentic Chinese food, I quickly realized how exotic the cuisine really was and American Chinese food is nonexistent in china.
I was not as brave as other China Mojoers and did not try anything that didn't look appealing to me. Fortunately, in Beijing there were many American fast food alternatives, and even a McDonald’s within walking distance from our hotel that had a pointing menu ready for tourists.

( A video from Youtube and the Travel Channel of China's Exotic Food )