Are you a vegetarian? I used to be. It started when I arrived in China, in 1988, and saw how much wonderful stuff can be made with just vegetables, oil, spices and a great cooking heritage.
Before that, 'vegetables' to me meant 'boiled-to-death cabbage', 'cauliflower soup', 'cucumber in a pate sandwich' or 'slices of tomato on a pizza'. (I have since learned that the tomato is, in fact, a fruit.)
So when I started travelling regularly in China, with increasing Putonghua and Cantonese vocabularies, adventurously saying, 'Cook me something good,' when ordering food, I was always puzzled when my request for 'but with no meat' inevitably resulted in me being served beef, chicken feet or duck heads.
It took me years - years! - to realise that in Chinese, 'meat' means only 'pork'. Goose, chicken wings, dog meat, cow's stomach - none of this is considered meat. It's a bit like how beer is not really considered an alcoholic drink on the mainland. 'No, thank you, I don't drink' is usually met with a soothing: 'That's OK, no one's forcing you. Have a beer.'
Fortunately, I'm not a recovering alcoholic, yet. If I were, I'd be falling off the wagon more times than I've had a hot duck's head dinner.
If you're a vegetarian, or worse, vegan, and you see something on the menu like 'double-fried imperial vegetables' or 'seasonal vegetable', don't think you're off the hook. With the mainland's relatively newfound wealth, it's de rigueur to eat pork at all meals, including breakfast.