Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) may be divided into various types depending on how they are cooked:

• Boiled dumplings; (shuijiao) literally "water dumplings" (????; pinyin: shu¨?ji¨?o).

• Steamed dumplings; (zhengjiao) literally "steam-dumpling" (????; pinyin: zh¨?ngji¨?o).

• Shallow fried dumplings (guotie) lit. "pan stick", known as "potstickers" in N. America, (???N; pinyin: gu¨?ti¨?), also referred to as "dry-fried dumplings" (????; pinyin: ji¨?nji¨?o).

Dumplings that use egg rather than dough to wrap the filling are called "egg dumplings" or (?°??; pinyin: dànji¨?o).

Common dumpling meat fillings include pork, mutton, beef, chicken, fish, and shrimp which are usually mixed with chopped vegetables. Popular vegetable fillings include cabbage, scallion (spring onions), leek, and Garlic chives. Dumplings are eaten with a soy sauce-based dipping sauce that may include vinegar, garlic, ginger, rice wine, hot sauce, and sesame oil.

Dumplings Jiaozi are one of the major foods eaten during the Chinese New Year, and year round in the northern provinces. They look like the golden ingots yuan bao used during the Ming Dynasty for money and the name sounds like the word for the earliest paper money, so serving them brings the promise of wealth, good luck and prosperity. Many families eat these at midnight on Chinese New Year's Eve so they have money at the changing of the years. Some cooks will even hide a clean coin in one for the most lucky to find.

Jiaozi are eaten all year round and can be eaten at any time of the day – breakfast, lunch or dinner. They can constitute one course, starter or side dish, or the main meal. Every family has its own preferred method of making them, with favourite fillings, and of course, jiaozi types and preparation vary widely according to region.

A plate of fried dumplings (guotie), and dipping sauce.

Cantonese style Chinese dumplings (gaau) are standard fare in dim sum. Gaau is simply the Cantonese pronunciation for ?? (pinyin: ji¨?o). The immediate noted difference to ji¨?ozi is that they are smaller and wrapped in a thinner translucent skin, and usually steamed. In other words, these are steamed dumplings. The smaller size and the thinner pastry make the dumplings easier to cook through with steaming. Fillings include shrimp, scallop, chicken, tofu, mixed vegetables, and others. The most common type are shrimp dumplings (har gow). In contrast to ji¨?ozi, gaau are rarely home-made. Similar to jiaozi, many types of fillings exist, and dim sum restaurants often feature their own house specials or innovations. Dim sum chefs and artists often use ingredients in new or creative ways, or draw inspiration from other Chinese culinary traditions, such as Chiuchow, Hakka, or Shanghai. More daring chefs may even incorporate a fusion from other cultures, such as Japanese (teriyaki) or Southeast Asian (satay, curry), while upscale restaurants may use expensive or exotic ingredients such as lobster, shark fin and bird's nest. Another Cantonese dumpling is the jau gok.

Jiaozi were so named because they were horn shaped. The Chinese for "horn" is ji¨?o (??), and jiaozi was originally written with the Chinese character for "horn", but later it was replaced by a specific character ??, which has the food radical on the left and the phonetic component ji¨?o (??) on the right. ^[1]

According to folk tales, jiaozi were invented by Zhang Zhongjing, one of the greatest practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine in history. They were originally called "???ú"(Pinyin: jiao'er) because they were used to treat frostbitten ears.

From??http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiaozi