Michelin folds three Chinese regions

Michelin has collapsed Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang into one restaurant guide, ending their separate treatment inside mainland China. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin unveiled the 2026 Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang edition in Taizhou, Zhejiang, on April 9, 2026. The company said it was the first time it had combined the three selections into a single release. (michelin.com) The new book covers 409 restaurants: 156 in Shanghai, 111 in Jiangsu and 142 in Zhejiang. Michelin counted 77 starred restaurants, made up of one three-star, 14 two-star and 62 one-star addresses. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin did not just merge existing lists. It added Changzhou in Jiangsu and Wenzhou and Taizhou in Zhejiang to the prior footprint built around Shanghai, Hangzhou and Jiangsu’s existing cities, including Nanjing, Suzhou and Yangzhou. (michelin.com.cn) The change turns a city guide into a regional map. Michelin said diners are increasingly planning trips by region, and it framed the combined edition around the Jiangnan food belt in the Yangtze River Delta. (michelin.com.cn) That also changes the comparison set for chefs and restaurants. A one-star restaurant in Shanghai is now ranked inside a pool that stretches across three provincial-level jurisdictions and several newly covered cities. (guide.michelin.com) Michelin tied the launch to two anniversaries: 100 years since the Michelin star system began in France in 1926, and 10 years since the guide entered mainland China in 2016. The company called the combined release “an important milestone” in its China expansion. (michelin.com) Outside Michelin, the reshuffle is already drawing scrutiny about what the guide now measures. TastyTrip, a Shanghai-based food publication, said the combined region still has only one three-star restaurant after Ultraviolet’s closure, and asked whether the guide’s top-end recognition in Chinese cuisine remains concentrated elsewhere, including Beijing. (tastytrip.com) For diners, the practical result is simpler than the branding: one Michelin edition now packages Shanghai’s international fine dining, Jiangsu’s city-by-city tradition and Zhejiang’s coastal and inland cooking as a single destination. Michelin’s map got bigger; its borders inside east China got blurrier. (guide.michelin.com)