China has a very long history of utilizing many types of soups in their cuisine, almost always prepared and eaten to provide balance to the meal and to provide not only nourishment but also to be a carrier of beneficially herbal and medicinal ingredient that can strengthen metabolism and immune system. While soups on the west can from time to time have daily product in them (milk or cream), Chinese soups are almost always based on broths, with thickening that is provided by refined starches from corn or sweet potatoes.
Basic types of Chinese soups – Egg drop soup, Ginseng (also very popular in Korea), Steamboat, Miso soup, Shark fin soup, Dried tofu skin soup, Noodle soup and Rice congee.
Most popular soups in China – Chicken soup (most commonly found around all Chinese regions), pork broth (cooked for several hours, often with addition of medicinal herbs), white broth (it uses lightly blanched pork bones), fish broth (uses fried and boiled fish), coarse broth and refined broth (superior broth and clarified broth).
Medicinal soups – Sijunzi tang, Siwu tang (uses 4 medicinal herbs), Sishen tang (pork meat soup), Liuwei tang (known as six taste soup that can fight body heat, made in tree variations such as “Cantonese restorative”, “Houke Zhizhang” and “Yupingfeng formulation derivative”), Bazhen tang and Shiquan tang.