Indeed my first visit to China in 1999, I found the Chinese food to be sub-par compared to what I had in Singapore, HK, or Taiwan. Though repeat visits in the last couple of years showed a remarkable change. There was more variety of Chinese food than I was used to since the ones in Taiwan, Singapore and HK features mainly southern Chinese dishes. For live seafood in Chinese cuisine, it really is essential to know the right places to go to. Live drunken shrimp should be lightly steamed with cooking wine with some herbs like goji berries, and usually served in bamboo containers. Generally the Chinese diners would want to see the live shrimps jumping about when making the order.