Variety

• China, being a much larger country than Japan, contains more than a single "Chinese cuisine." Historically, China has divided its cuisines into eight main types. This concept, called the "Eight Cuisines" in China and Taiwan, has allowed the Chinese to expand their concept of "Chinese food" to much more than that of their local region. This has led to an abundant variety of ingredients and dishes in the Chinese diet that the dishes of the Japanese diet cannot match.
  
  

Reliance on Meat

• One obvious difference between the diets of the Chinese and Japanese is the reliance on meat in each region. In general, China has historically relied less on meat than Japan, as it has a profoundly large population and developed more slowly; hence, there were less resources to provide all of its citizens with a meat-heavy diet. To this day, the traditional cuisine of China is focused more heavily on vegetables than meats; however, the modern Japanese diet is meat and seafood heavy, mirroring the modern diet of much of the Western world.
  
  

Ingredients

• While the staple foods of both Japan and China are rice and noodles, the main ingredients used in each cuisine differ greatly. Japan, being an island, makes heavy use of seafood in its people's diet. China, having a large mass of land, focuses on land animals rather than seafood. In addition, the variety of climates in China allows many different types of fruits and vegetables to contribute to the Chinese diet. Japan's climate is more homogeneous and lacks some of the fruits and vegetables available in China.
  
  

Beverages

• The common beverages of the Chinese and Japanese diets are similar on a macro scale but differ on a micro scale, according to Shin-Ying Tsai, chef of Bamboo Forest restaurant in Taipei. While the most prominent beverage, other than water, in both Chinese and Japanese cuisines is tea, the types of teas popular in these two regions differ. In China and Taiwan, there is no single tea that excels in popularity; green tea, Oolong tea, white tea, black tea and a variety of other teas can be found in restaurants and tea shops all over China, Taiwan and Singapore. In Japan, green tea continues its reign as king. A specific kind of Japanese tea, known in Japan as "matcha," is much more popular in Japan than in Chinese regions. Matcha refers to green tea that has been ground into a fine power. This tea has a distinctive flavor that differs from Chinese green teas.