Detailed Gluten-Free Restaurant Card — China (Mandarin)

Skip the dumpling shops, learn to say “no soy sauce”

Southern, rice-based Chinese cuisines — Cantonese steamed dishes, congee, plainly stir-fried greens — offer real naturally gluten-free options. Northern cuisine is wheat country: noodles, dumplings, and buns everywhere. The bigger issue is soy sauce, which contains wheat and goes into nearly everything. Bringing my own gluten-free soy sauce is the single most useful thing I do; hotel and international restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing are my most reliable meals.

What’s on the card

• An explanation of 乳糜泻 (celiac disease) in Simplified Chinese — verbal explanations rarely work, so the card does it in writing
• What I can’t eat and where gluten hides: soy sauce in stir-fries, marinades, and dipping sauces; oyster, hoisin, and black-bean sauces; vegetarian “mock meats” (miànjīn and kǎofū are literally wheat gluten); even barley tea
• What’s usually workable: plain steamed rice and steamed fish or poached chicken with no sauce, no soy
• The kitchen questions — including “Does this contain soy sauce? It contains wheat,” and the clean-wok and clean-utensils request

What’s in the travel companion (page 2)

• How I choose: hotel and international dining rooms for clear communication, the phrase 请不要酱油 (please, no soy sauce), plain-broth (清汤) hot pot with my own dipping sauce, and searching 无麸质 on Dianping in big cities
• Six dishes worth ordering, shopping notes (bring gluten-free soy sauce from home; San-J tamari at some expat stores; Schär at expat supermarkets in Shanghai and Beijing), label words to spot (小麦 = wheat, 面筋 = wheat gluten), and where options cluster — Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu
• If you get glutened: the 药店 (pharmacy) phrase “我有乳糜泻，吃到了麸质,” emergency numbers 120 for an ambulance and 110 for police, and international clinics in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou with English-speaking doctors

The honest certification picture

China has no celiac association and no local gluten-free certification — ingredient lists are what you have. 无麸质 (wú fūzhì, gluten-free) appears on some imported products, and wheat-free tamari is hard to find locally, which is why the card and companion both say to bring your own. Nobody certifies a restaurant wok here — the card carries the conversation in Chinese instead.

Format

Instant download: 2-page PDF, printable or phone-ready.

This card helps communicate your dietary needs. It does not guarantee a gluten-free meal or eliminate cross-contact risk. Always use your judgment, and when in doubt, do not eat. Not medical advice.