The school has several mess halls on campus for students. Some are in cafeteria style and at least one has regular restaurant service. There are many small but good eating places just outside the school wall in Red & Blue Village, operated by the villagers living nearby.
Cost of food is very low by the North American or European standard. Most of our students spend about fifteen RMB (about two US Dollars) per day on food. Foreign teachers often eat in the little restaurants on campus or nearby.  The spending may be slightly higher off campus. In general, one can say that the eating places on campus or in the Red & Blue Village are cleaner. The taste of the food is more or less a personal matter and it is difficult to judge.

If the teachers cook for themselves, they have to purchase food from the local market. The local market is nothing like 'A & P' , 'Safeway' or any supermarket in U.S. Supermarket is found only in larger towns and not in nearby villages but most foreign teachers found that the local markets are good enough. It is a lot better if one is psychologically prepared before going to the local markets. Years ago, some teachers found that they had problem eating the food after seeing the vegetable lying on the ground or the flies on the raw meat in the local market but the situation has improved quite a lot since.  If one cooks all meat and vegetable before eating, it is perfectly safe even in the old days.. No foreign teacher had any serious problems even when they went travel and ate in small local places. Most Chinese cook their food well because of health reason.