Halal, vegetarian and fussy eating on a Chinese trek

We get more questions about food than about altitude. Fair enough — you are going to eat three meals a day for a week with people you have just met, in a place where you cannot read the menu.

The good news first

Western Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet have large Muslim communities and a long history of halal food along the old trade routes. In towns like Kangding, Litang, Songpan, Xining and Lhasa you will find Hui restaurants — usually signed in Chinese as 清真 — serving beef noodles, lamb skewers and flatbread. On trek, our cooks are briefed on religious dietary requirements when the booking says so, and separate cooking is arranged for groups where it is needed.

The realistic limitations

On trek, the kitchen is a single camp stove operation. A separate halal kitchen means a separate cook, separate pots and separate utensils, and it has to be requested at booking, not on the mountain. Where a supplier cannot guarantee proper separation, we will tell you before you pay rather than improvise a promise on the trail.

Vegetarian is easy, vegan is harder, gluten-free is hardest. Chinese trail food is vegetable-heavy by default — potatoes, cabbage, mushrooms, tofu, noodles, rice, yak or pork for the meat eaters. A vegetarian will eat well. A vegan needs to be explicit about eggs, dairy and lard, because lard shows up in places you would not expect. Gluten-free almost always means carrying your own staples; soy sauce and noodles both contain wheat.

"Not spicy" is a real request and it works. Sichuan food has a reputation, but trail cooks routinely prepare a mild version when asked. Say it at booking, in writing, and again on day one.

What a trek day looks like

A normal pattern on our group trips:

• Breakfast: noodles or rice porridge, eggs, steamed bread, tea. Instant coffee if you bring it.
• Lunch: packed — flatbread, cold vegetables, boiled egg, fruit, sometimes cold noodles.
• Afternoon: tea and something fried, because Chinese trekking groups always have a hot snack.
• Dinner: four to six dishes, rice, soup. Always more food than the group can finish.

Nobody has ever come back from one of these trips saying they were hungry.

Practical advice

• State your requirement at booking, in one clear sentence. "No meat, no fish, no egg" is better than "vegetarian".
• Bring a small supply of your own protein if it matters to you — nuts, dried chickpeas, protein bars. Not because the kitchen will fail you, but because a week is a long time.
• Bring your own coffee if you are particular. Chinese trail coffee is instant and it is not good.
• Carry a translation card with your dietary needs in Chinese characters. Screenshot it; you will not have signal.
• Currency for snacks: ¥100–200 in small notes covers village shop stops.
• Water: boiled and filtered water is provided on trek. Bring a filter bottle or purification tablets if you are cautious, and skip single-use plastic — the trail camps have enough rubbish as it is.

A note for travellers from Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei

You are not the first person from your country on these routes, and the operators on our Halal-friendly list have handled Muslim groups before. If halal certification of the camp kitchen is non-negotiable for you, say so at enquiry and we will only offer you trips where it can actually be arranged. If it is a preference rather than a requirement, most Sichuan and Yunnan trips work comfortably — the towns on the approach are full of 清真 restaurants.