Sorry, I don’t have time to read all the other answers before replying so sorry for any duplication.

There are both fattening and non-fattening choices in China. Often food can be swimming in oil, so that may sometimes make it more fattening. Also, there are a number of deep fried dishes which will tend to be more fattening.

The thing you might find different depending on where you are is that you get more exercise through just daily activities. People tend to walk more places, or take their bikes. So, I never “worked out” or dieted while I lived there, but stayed in shape nonetheless.

Some cultural Dos and Don’ts:
- Don’t stick chopsticks straight down into your rice, this implies death. You can however lay them across the top of your rice bowl.
- Don’t pick up food off the table if you drop it. It’s the equivalent of picking it up off the floor in Chinese society (and picking it up off the floor is the equivalent of picking it out of the toilet).
- Don’t be surprised by slurping noises at the table. This is not considered impolite in most circles.
- Don’t ever write someone’s name in red, and avoid writing notes to people in red. The reason for this is the mortuary records are written in red, and putting someone’s name in red is thus like saying you wish they were dead.
- Do give people “face”—don’t insist that they give you an explanation for everything. Allow people to be vague if they want to. China is a place where it’s much better to say “It’s not convenient for me to have dinner with you” rather than explaining why. Explaining why implies that you don’t consider the person a good friend. Good friends do not need to give explanations (there are some exceptions to this)
- if you invite someone to a meal, do pay for it. Generally people do not “go dutch”. It is customary to fight over the bill, and to not give up without a fight. If you invited you should put up a very big fight and use the fact that you invited as part of your argument for you paying. But do give in sometimes to give “face” to the other person.

- I did read the comment about “Culture Shock China”. Just my two cents, but this was my least favorite culture shock book. I think it was because the way it talked about China would not be sensitive to Mainland Chinese reading it. I read it before China, but didn’t want to take it with me because I didn’t want English speaking Chinese friends to browse through my shelf and read it. The book I loved was: “Encountering Chinese: A Guide for Americans” available at http://www.interculturalpress.com. Also available at the same source is “Turning Bricks into Jade” which is also excellent. These are probably both available at Amazon as well. They were both written by both American and Chinese anthropologist authors (multiple authors for each).

Another book which I find particularly enlightening is: “The Chinese Have a Word for It” which is available at Amazon (search on the title). It lists hundreds of Chinese words that have special cultural meaning to Chinese people. There is a page long explanation of what the word means in Chinese culture, and why it’s so important. For instance, it helped me a lot in understanding the Chinese view of “face” (rather than understanding it only from an American perspective).

That’s all I have for now. Hope this helps.