Chinese cuisine likes to mix things together (stir fries, sechuan chicken, etc) and serves each different dish in succession. Often there will be only one dish of food at the table at a time and everyone will share. Chinese food uses a lot of oil (all that frying), and a lot of sweetening. Chinese food also makes a lot of use of more "exotic" ingredients, like coconut and bat, has more meat than Japanese food (though less seafood). Chinese noodles tend to be thinner and firmer than the Japanese. For spicing, the chinese use ginger, and peppercorns, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, anise--the "five spices".