Yes, I've heard this is true in some non-US locations. In the US, you generally only need to worry about eggs and fish sauce, or beef/chicken broth in soups, an

Yes, I've heard this is true in some non-US locations. In the US, you generally only need to worry about eggs and fish sauce, or beef/chicken broth in soups, and I've rarely (maybe never) had trouble getting a vegetarian or vegan meal in a Chinese restaurant anywhere in the US, Canada, or Mexico. I do often ask for clarification about whether a dish has fish sauce or eggs, and if I can get it prepared without, but I've never had a dish appear with shrimp that didn't advertise it had shrimp; given the price of seafood in the US, restaurants like to brag when a dish has seafood in it. I also never order soups at unfamiliar restaurants unless they are explicitly labeled as vegetarian or vegan. Thai and Vietnamese restaurants are more likely to have fish sauce in almost everything, though they're usually happy to make a vegetarian version. Korean restaurants seem tricky, as there's almost never anything vegan on the menu, but bibimbop can be ordered without meat or egg, even if they don't offer a tofu version. But, none are as consistently easy to order from as Chinese. I've been told that when traveling abroad, in some regions in Asia (including some parts of India), saying, "I'm Buddhist" will help the wait staff and chef understand what you mean when you say "vegetarian". I don't know exactly where or whether this is entirely accurate, since millions of Chinese are Buddhist and not vegetarian. I've never used this one weird trick for getting an actual vegetarian meal, but I've heard it from a few older vegetarians who have traveled a lot.