It's much more than just stir fries, noodles and dumplings.

Up until the last decade or so, Chinese restaurants in the West haven't been very diverse, But China itself is, and it's climate, geography, culture and consequently, its food.

This is our breakdown of regional Chinese cuisines for simplicity sake.

We've divided China into four regions north, south, east and west.

Fit in the north because of the cold.

Climate is heavy on meat and cards.

The southern seaboard is rich with seafood, and the regions around the Yangtze River Delta in the east are teeming with river fish and crustaceans.

Meanwhile, the tropical southwest is lush with vegetation.

Still, it's difficult to categorize Chinese food.

Provincial borders are not the best markers, as many of them have shifted over time with the rise and fall of dynasties.

Now, Chinese food can be broken down into many different categories, But searching regions cuisines have become dominant simply because of their international reach.

Generally speaking, China has two main carbs wheat and rice, and their prevalence follows a north south divide.

Rice requires a lot of water, and the self gets plenty of it with more rain on average than the North.

Therefore, rice is consumed more in the south, and the North specializes in wheat because it doesn't need all that much water.

In the north, you'll see a lot of wheat noodle dishes and quite a bit of buns.

In the South, you'll see a lot of fried rice, rice noodles and rice noodle rules.

Let's zoom into the south.

The Southeast, including Guangdong Province and Hong Kong, is home to Cantonese cuisine.

The flavor profile here tends to be salty and sweet, and because of its proximity to the sea, there's a lot of seafood.

This region is also the birthplace of oyster sauce and hoisin sauce, and people here are really good at making sweet, barbecued meat.

Cantonese cuisine also includes dim sum, a class of small brunch fights powered by steam think rice noodle roles and delicate shrimp dumplings wrapped in tapioca flour.

Just above is the east.

Among the four regional cuisines, it is the sweetest.

Fish is deep fried and ladled with sweet and sour sauce, and pork ribs are coated with soy sauce and sugar.

It's proximity to a lush network of waterways has earned it the moniker land of fish and rice, Freshwater fish and crustaceans tend to dominate the menu.

It also happens to be the home of soup, dumplings or shallow ball and yams fried rice.

Over in the west, you have a lush area that's known for its sub tropical climate, pandas and spicy food.

Fresh greens are abundant here, and the flavor profile is spicy and numbing.

This is also the home of the Sichuan peppercorn, a Chinese spice that will literally numb the tongue.

And finally, we have the north.

Leafy greens are harder to find here.

Potatoes, eggplant, onions and cabbage tend to be the plants of choice.

Meat is dominant, especially beef and lamb.

And because it's a wheat heavy region, noodles, buns and dumplings are everywhere.

You'll see dishes like a lamb dumplings and beef noodle soup.

So there you have it.

A very simple break down to the four most prominent regions of Chinese cuisine.

Coming up will be doing a much deeper dive into each of these four regions.

We've enlisted four tour guides and four chefs to teach us more about the respective cuisines.

This is just the beginning, so keep your eye on this channel for more.