I left for China a runner. I returned a Teletubby.

Holding tightly to the philosophy that the truest way to see a place is to eat your way through it, I packed on 25 pounds as an undergrad abroad in 1999. And while that initial feat remains unmatched, each of three extended trips to China over the following six years, including a visit last fall, translated to at least eight pounds on the scale. Chinese food in China is good, to put it mildly.

That's perhaps not the experience of folks on packaged tours, where meals often consist of banquet food poorly adjusted for Western tastes. But even the most programmed tour gives its participants an afternoon or evening to walk around and explore night markets — which offer tofu-on-a-stick and slightly sweetened popcorn — and discover no-name storefronts serving up bowls of lamian, freshly pulled noodles swimming in broth. I have never had anything less than a stellar meal at these family-run joints, all for usually less than $3 a person. With beer.

For those who don't speak Chinese or enjoy pantomiming — and who'd like a restaurant with a clean floor — here are six Beijing haunts offering English menus that showcase a variety of Chinese food. The city is increasingly fashionable these days, but I've found that backpackers and one-outfit travelers are welcome at even the fanciest restaurants. Also, menus and prices tend to stay the same for both lunch and dinner.

If cabbing it, have your concierge write down the name and address of the restaurant in Chinese on the hotel's card and give it to your driver.

YU XIN

Order like a glutton, pay like a pauper at the magnificent Yu Xin, where a long room filled with booths, private nooks and a gazebolike table (complete with faux foliage) provides the backdrop for some of the city's most authentic Sichuan cuisine. As is standard in China, dishes arrive in a constant stream, served as soon as they are prepared. We mixed small cold dishes, such as sesame and dried bean curd (75 cents) and mashed garlic and cucumber (25 cents), with generous portions of eggplant in chili sauce ($2), roll of yolk and duck meat ($2.25), toffee sweet potatoes ($3.10) and mantou, fried buns served with condensed milk ($2). The bullfrog cooked with pao peppers ($7.20) is what keeps folks coming back.

$12 for two, including beer. Yu Xin (011-86-10-6415-8168) is at 5A Xingfu Yicun Xili, Chaoyang District. Nearest metro: Dongsishitiao.

DIN TAI FUNG

This offshoot of the slick Taiwan enterprise offers signature dumplings that should by all appearances spew hot liquid when picked up by chopsticks. But somehow the thin-skinned, pork-filled xiaolongbao ($4.40 for 10) explode only after entering your mouth. Other menu standouts include vegetable dumplings ($3.70 for 10), sauteed green vegetables ($3.10), fried rice with egg ($2.40) and noodles with sesame sauce ($2.40). Finish with the delectable steamed mashed red bean buns ($3.40 for 10). And if you run into a wait at this perennially popular place, there's entertainment: The glassed-in kitchen offers a look at the nimble-fingered chefs wrapping dumplings.

$15 for two, including beer. Din Tai Fung (011-86-10-6462-4502) is at 22 Hujiayuan, Dongcheng District. Nearest metro: Dongzhimen.

XIAO WANGFU

For home-style Beijing cuisine, head to Xiao Wangfu, east of the Workers' Stadium just behind the City Hotel. A replica of a train car runs along one side of the massive dining room (yup, you can eat in it), and the menu offers the triumvirate of English, characters and Pinyin, the pronunciation system using Roman letters. The main ingredient used for yuxiang cuipi doufu is silken tofu; be prepared for a marvelous ooze once you break the crispy, chili-sauce-covered shell ($2.20). The dried French beans can be ordered with or without pork ($1.80) and are covered with flecks of salty preserved mustard greens. You'll see plenty of Westerners, but just as many Beijingers looking for food like mom used to make.

$9 for two, including beer. Xiao Wangfu (011-86-10-6592-8777) is at 4 Gongti Dong Lu, Chaoyang District. Nearest metro: Dongsishitiao.

BELLAGIO

Hipsters looking for Taiwanese cuisine head south of the Workers' Stadium to Bellagio, where the waitresses sport identical short haircuts and the focus is on regional specialties such as tofu in a clay pot ($3.50). With floor-to-ceiling windows and sleek decorations, this is a place to see and be seen eating; the kitchen turns out super-light rice noodles (served with tiny shrimp, $2.90) and other delish dishes until 4 a.m. The sweets are better eye candy than dessert: The hong dou bing (shaved ice covered with red bean paste, $2.30) looks amazing — picture a rosy version of the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" mashed potatoes — but tastes like ... ice topped with red bean paste. But dessert has never been an integral part of the Chinese meal; savory dishes such as pork-filled fried eggplant ($4.80) are the main draw.

$18 for two, including beer. Bellagio (011-86-10-6551-3533) is at 6 Gongti Xi Lu, Chaoyang District. Nearest metro: Chaoyangmen.

FACTORY 798

Those seeking a bit of Berlin or SoHo go to Dashanzi Yishuqu (also called Factory 798), hitting Vincent Cafe for lunch or an evening drink at the bar. A 20-minute bus ride northeast from downtown, Dashanzi is an urban factory district that, in recent years, has emerged as a vibrant artistic community. It's easy to while away an afternoon walking through the avant-garde art galleries, dodging leaking pipes (the area's a work in progress) and stopping for crepes and Chinese dishes such as braised beef with rice ($3.70). The French-owned eatery serves both savory buckwheat crepes (try the onion, $1.80, or the "Forest," with mushrooms, parsley, garlic and red sauce, $4.30) and sweet wheat flour crepes ($1.80 to $4.30).

$12 for two, including beer. Vincent Cafe (011-86-10-8456-4823) is at 2 Jiu Xian Qiao Lu, Chaoyang District. Nearest metro: Take the 915 or 918 bus near the Dongzhimen metro out to Dashanzi.

DING DING XIANG

Hot pot, fondue's Asian sibling, can be a nightmare for vegetarians and those not fond of swapping germs. Ding Ding Xiang, the place for hot pot, waves away any concerns by offering each diner his own small pot, to be filled with a choice of clear soups (mushroom broth, $2). The menu, including six pages of raw meat selections (such as "superior" assorted beef and mutton pieces, $7.10), also features prawns ($5.90), assorted mushrooms ($4.40), spinach ($1) and three types of dimpled bean curd ($1.80). After letting the tidbits cook, a dip in either a creamy sesame sauce or a miso/soy sauce adds just the right flavor.

$15 for two, including beer. Ding Ding Xiang (011-86-10-6417-9289) is on the second floor, 2/F Yuanjia International Apartments, Dongzhimenwai, Dongzhong Jie, opposite East Gate Plaza, Dongcheng District. Nearest metro: Dongsishitiao.