A reader recently asked how and where to eat Halal food during a business trip to Shanghai. China has a large population of Muslim peoples who are part of ten ethnic groups. The largest group is the Uigher minority from Xinjiang Province in China's far west. These folks have brought their delicious cuisine east and you can find their restaurants from large venues to tiny dives all over Chinese cities. So in essence, it is relatively easy to find Muslim restaurants in China.

But if you don't have time to wander and your hotel concierge is scratching his head, IslamChina.com have a great web site on the history and culture of Islamic peoples in China and also list restaurants for various Islamic ethnic cuisines by city, e.g. Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen.

Definitely add Islamic foods such as Xinjiang or Hui cuisine to your culinary itinerary while in China. The spices and flavors are utterly different from the foods you'll find from other locations and you'll probably find yourself craving lamb kebabs after your first experience. I do.

After six years in Shanghai, a city I used to think was relatively inexpensive, I'm finding costs creeping farther up. Little white stickers are appearing in more and more restaurant menus covering old prices and indicating new ones. As Shanghai becomes more cosmopolitan and developed, so are the prices.

But that shouldn't get the traveler down. There are still plenty of things to do that don't cost a fortune. In fact, I've put together a little list just for this sake. Take in the free stuff and spend your money on treasure for home and delicious food. But even food doesn't have to break the bank - there are plenty of cheap and yummy eats in Shanghai.

Read more:

• Free things to do in Shanghai
• Eating cheap (and yummy) in Shanghai
• Inexpensive downtown hotels in Shanghai

My Asian tea experience began over twelve years ago in Japan where I studied tea ceremony for about six months. It's extremely ceremonial and - I learned recently - an import from Song Dynasty China. Meditative, beautiful and sometimes painful (try sitting on your knees like that for ten minutes, much less an hour!), it is certainly not casual.

Move forward in time and I find myself looking wistfully into Chinese tea houses watching patrons merrily sipping tea with friends. While I have a deep appreciation for the Japanese tea ceremony, I like the gregariousness of casual Chinese tea drinking.

But there's ceremony involved here as well and a proper way to prepare and drink Chinese tea. But it's really a lovely pastime, and a good way to keep warm in these cold temperatures. After choosing which tea to drink, one can enjoy the fragrance as well as the flavor, an aspect that develops as you drink through your pot of tea.

Drinking tea in China is as quintessentially Chinese as Tai Chi and Ping Pong. Don't let your holiday pass by without stopping to enjoy a nice cup (or two or three...)

Photos: Tea preparation at the Song Fang Maison de thé. © 2007 Sara Naumann, licensed to About.com.

American Thanksgiving is around the corner, coming up on November 26th. Are you going to be in China over the holiday? Want to know how to get your turkey fix? Read on.