Tongli is a great place to sample local Jiangsu cuisine, especially dishes featuring fresh aquatic plants and fish. Most local food is slightly sweet, favoring brown sauces and light seasoning that allows the flavors of the ingredients to stand out. Famous regional snacks include smoked fish, dried bean curd, glutinous rice cakes and lightly fried spring rolls. There are a number of good, cheap "home-style" restaurants along the canals, and you're best off just following your nose and picking the canal-side establishment that suits your mood at the time. Order a cool drink or pot of tea, sample the local fare and relax as river traffic, locals and tourists drift by.

You can easily get by entirely on snacks if you wish. Local and visiting Chinese seek out highly regarded Tongli lotus root -- a sweet-tasting white tidbit well worth trying. Another snack to try is jiuniangbing, a kind of pancake made with distillers' grains.

Most restaurants don't have English menus, but the Xiangge Jiulou on Mingqing Jie is an exception. For more on Tongli eats, check out our growing Food & Restaurant listings below, and feel free to add your own reviews and comments.