What are the food practices of the Chinese people and the foods in their usual eating habits?

The Chinese will eat just about anything, and make it taste delicious. There is very little waste in their cooking styles. About the only thing that lacks in their cuisine is dairy products.

They eat a lot of vegetables, rice, and seafood when available. Chicken and Pork are more prevalent in most areas , than is beef. No parts of the animal are taboo. Chicken feet, as well as the unborn eggs are just as likely to show up in a dish as the breast meat. There is a dish made of Pig's feet (delicious and filling), called Childbirth Ginger, that is supposed to rebuild the stamina of the female body after birth.

Many of their dishes have names depicting the restorative properties attributed to them. Recipes have often been passed down from generation to generation, and still bear similarities with dishes prepared in other parts of the country. If an item has any food value whatsoever, it will be used.

The Chinese diet consists mainly carbs (rice, noodles, bread), vegetable and white meat (fish, pork, chicken). Red meat is considered "heavy" and "toxic" by many Chinese people are not eaten in large quantities. Chinese people like their food fresh, that's why you see many housewives going to the markets in the morning to get fish that are still swimming (or just died). Chinese people love soup and they have it almost every meal except breakfast.

Chinese people treat dinner as a family get-together time and it's important that the entire family sit together to have dinner.

Chinese people are not that into desserts. Cookies and cakes are served as snacks or dim sum instead, with tea. Chinese dessert is usually soup-based.

Chinese people believe in "you become what you eat". For example, eating brain will make you smarter, eating tendons and feet will strengthen your legs/joints, eating fish will help you swim faster, etc.

Prohibited foods are considered "delicacy" in China and most people cannot afford them.

Chinese will eat most things. They will eat almost every part of a chicken, fish, or pig. The serve chicken feet, pig intestines, tripe, pig blood, liver and on. Also whole chickens are used to make soup. The use bones of fish, steak and pork as well. Most Chinese especially the older ones do not drink when they eat especially cold beverages. The only allowed beverage is hot herbal tea. Sometimes they drink wine. They don't like cold or sweet food, drinks. The younger Chinese are probably different.

The first answerer has a lot of good points. I will add that there are a lot of smaller or subgroups within China, for instance we think of Chinese but there is for instance Cantonese within the Chinese population (the Cantonese are known for being the most adventurous eaters). The geography is also very diverse as are the cultures, so there is a lot of variation throughout the country. One eating habit is that people quite often eat from street vendors and things, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks etc. And everyone does this, as it is quite customary and affordable, so people eat out a lot more than North Americans do but it isn't viewed in quite the same light. A friend recently came back from China and the weirdest thing he ate was fried silk worms, he said they were good. Depending on the area you may also find cat and dog on the menu, not a mainstay like chicken or beef, but you can find it, especially in some provinces. As the first answerer said, many of these things are eaten because they are believed to have certain attributes if you eat them. Only in recent years have people started to be able to afford pets and start having them, so people weren't attached to things like cats and dogs, just like some people think rabbits are food, and some think they are pets.