As Beijing hosts the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations, there are also opportunities in southwestern China to enjoy dishes from all over Asia. Chengdu is hosting food displays from many parts of the continent, with venues offering Israeli, South Korean, Thai, Pakistani and Japanese menus in the city's hottest tourist spot until Wednesday.

According to Koubei by Alibaba, an online lifestyle business directory, its latest data suggests the growth of restaurants serving food from other parts of Asia in Chengdu is topping the chart nationwide. In the first quarter, the growth rate hit 56 percent, surpassing cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Chef Avi Barzilay from Israel offered a taste of the Mediterranean near Chengdu's iconic Chunxi Road – an area attracting up to over 300,000 tourists a day.  After working five years in five-star hotels in the city, Barzilay and his Chinese wife opened their own pizza bistro. Many dishes on the menu are inspired by his home country Israel.

“All the food we serve here is for sharing. It is not a personal dish or a three-course meal. That's the biggest part of Mediterranean food – about sharing and about love,” Barzilay said.

Korean noodles master, Choi Hyeokjun, opened his shop in Chengdu six years ago. He can sell some 100 bowls of noodles on regular days and double that amount during peak time.

“Chengdu people are proud of their cuisine," Choi said. "At first, it was not easy for them to get used to foreign tastes. But still, I found local people that welcome foreign tastes very much. As long as I keep doing what I am good at, people fall in love with it with time.”

The Chengdu head of Alibaba's Koubei, Wang Qinglong, told CGTN that people in Chengdu tend to fall in love quickly with exotic tastes because of their desire to learn more about other cultures.

“As the Chinese saying goes, food is the medium and culture is the soul,” said Wang.