Chinese pickles or Chinese preserved vegetables consists of various vegetables or fruits, which have been fermented by pickling

Pickling

Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar . The resulting food is called a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste...

 with salt and brine (鹹菜) or marinated in mixtures based on soy sauce

Soy sauce

Soy sauce is a condiment produced by fermenting soybeans with Aspergillus oryzae or Aspergillus sojae molds, along with water and salt...

 or savory bean pastes

Fermented bean paste

Fermented bean paste is a category of fermented foods typically made from ground soybeans, which are indigenous to the cuisines of East and Southeast Asia...

 (醬菜). The former is usually done using vegetables from Chinese mustard or Chinese cabbage

Chinese cabbage

Chinese cabbage can refer to two distinct varieties of Chinese leaf vegetables used often in Chinese cuisine. These vegetables are both related to the Western cabbage, and are of the same species as the common turnip...

, while the latter marinated group is made using a wide variety of vegetables, ranging from mustards and cucumbers to winter melon

Winter melon

The winter melon, also called white gourd, ash gourd, or "fuzzy melon", is a vine grown for its very large fruit, eaten as a vegetable when mature. It is the only member of the genus Benincasa. The fruit is fuzzy when young. The immature melon has thick white flesh that is sweet when eaten...

 and radishes.

Fermented

Vegetables and plums are salted and allowed to ferment with the help of Lactic acid bacteria

Lactic acid bacteria

The lactic acid bacteria comprise a clade of Gram-positive, low-GC, acid-tolerant, generally non-sporulating, non-respiring rod or cocci that are associated by their common metabolic and physiological characteristics. These bacteria, usually found in decomposing plants and lactic products, produce...

. Depending on the desired product, the vegetable may also be fermented with Chinese wine

Chinese wine

Jiu is the Chinese word that refers to all alcoholic beverages. This word has often been mistranslated into English as "wine"; the meaning is closer to "alcoholic beverage" or "liquor"...

 and spices. Some types of these preserved vegetables are produced through being repeatedly dried after the fermentation.

• Meigan cai
  Meigan cai
  Meigan cai is a type of dry pickled Chinese mustard of the Hakka people from Huizhou, Guangdong province, China. Meigan cai is also used in the cuisine of Shaoxing , Zhejiang province, China....
  
   (梅菜)
• Suan cai
  Suan cai
  Suan cai , or in English, "sour vegetable", is a traditional Chinese pickled Chinese cabbage. It is used in a variety of ways...
  
   (酸菜)
• la bai cai
  Kimchi
  Kimchi , also spelled gimchi, kimchee, or kim chee, is a traditional fermented Korean dish made of vegetables with varied seasonings. There are hundreds of varieties of kimchi made with a main vegetable ingredient such as napa cabbage, radish, green onions or cucumber. It is the most common...
  
  
• Tianjin preserved vegetable
  Tianjin preserved vegetable
  Tianjin preserved vegetable is a type of pickled Chinese cabbage originating in Tianjin, China. It consists of finely chopped Tianjin cabbage and salt...
  
  (冬菜)
• Prunus mume (酸梅)
• Zha cai
  Zha cai
  Zha cai is a type of pickled mustard plant stem originating from Sichuan, China. Other transliterations might include cha tsai, tsa tsai; or jar choy, jar choi, ja choi, ja choy, or cha tsoi...
  
   (榨菜)

Marinated

Vegetables are usually marinated in a soy sauce mixture with sugar

Sugar

Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...

, vinegar

Vinegar

Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...

, salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

, and additional spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

s. The vegetable are lighted boiled in the soy mixture before being left to cool and absorb the marinade:

• Pao cai
  Pao cai
  Pao cai is a type of pickle, usually pickled cabbage, often found in Chinese, and particularly Sichuanese cuisine. It is most common to northern and western China; however, there is also a unique form of pao cai, called suan cai, which is prominent in Northeast China.Chinese pao cai closely...
  
   (泡菜)
• Cucumber
  Cucumber
  The cucumber is a widely cultivated plant in the gourd family Cucurbitaceae, which includes squash, and in the same genus as the muskmelon. The plant is a creeping vine which bears cylindrical edible fruit when ripe. There are three main varieties of cucumber: "slicing", "pickling", and...
  
  s
• Radishes
  Radish
  The radish is an edible root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe, in pre-Roman times. They are grown and consumed throughout the world. Radishes have numerous varieties, varying in size, color and duration of required cultivation time...
  
  , Daikon
  Daikon
  Daikon , Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus, also called White Radish, Japanese radish, Oriental radish, Chinese radish, lo bok and Mooli , is a mild flavoured, very large, white East Asian radish...
  
  
• Bitter melon
  Bitter melon
  Momordica charantia, called bitter melon or bitter gourd in English, is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit, which is among the most bitter of all fruits...
  
  
• Garlic
  Garlic
  Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
  
  (臘八蒜, labasuan)