I used to make soup more regularly than I do now... during the pandemic lockdowns I was making a big pot of some kind of soup every Sunday that would last me through most of the week.

Hot and sour soup was quite regularly in that rotation. It's an easy soup to make, though the ingredients aren't all easy to find in Western grocery stores. For a large pot of hot and sour soup, I'd use about a quarter-pound of pork (julienned), a 12 oz block of firm tofu (cut into pieces), about half of a small can of bamboo shoots (julienned), and a large handful of dried wood ear mushrooms (rehydrated and julienned). If you can't find wood ear mushrooms, shiitakes are a decent substitute. Bring a pot of stock to the boil, add the pork, simmer until cooked through, add all the other solid ingredients, and bring back to the simmer. Next, add the seasonings, which I do entirely to tastes: white pepper (2-3 teaspoons?), soy sauce (2-3 tablespoons?), and vinegar (maybe half a cup?), and sesame oil (just a little). Ideally you'd use Chinese black vinegar, but I don't normally have that; I've gotten good results with sherry vinegar or with a mixture of red wine vinegar and rice vinegar. You can err on the side of less white pepper and vinegar, as both would normally be on the table as condiments. Thicken with a cornstarch slurry (maybe a quarter cup of cornstarch with enough cold water to get it into suspension). Beat an egg, and drizzle it into the soup while stirring slowly to produce ribbons in the soup, and you're done. Note that hot and sour soup does not traditionally contain chiles. Traditionally, the heat comes only from white pepper.

The other Chinese soup that was consistently in my soup rotation is not entirely Chinese: Shanghai-style borscht, which is a local adaptation of the borscht that Russian refugees brought to Shanghai after the 1917 revolution. No beets in this version because beets don't grow well in northern China! This recipe is a little more involved. Ingredients are: beef (any cut suitable for slow cooking, in large pieces), onions, garlic, tomatoes (can use either fresh or canned diced tomatoes), tomato paste, carrots, potatoes, green cabbage, bay leaves, Worcestershire sauce. Start by parboiling the beef for 5-10 minutes, then discard the water with the scum that has come off the beef, and set the beef aside. Now heat some oil in the pot, sear the beef on all sides, and add sliced onions and minced garlic. When the onions are softened, clear a space in the center of the pot, and drop some tomato paste in that space. The idea here is to lightly fry the tomato paste to bring out its sweetness. After a few minutes, when the oil in the pot is reddish, add the tomatoes, stir, and cook for a few more minutes. Next, roughly cut up the carrots and add them to the pot with water to cover, two or three bay leaves, about a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer for 2-3 hours, then cut up and add the potatoes and cabbage, and cook for another half hour or until the potatoes are tender, and it's ready to serve. I usually just eyeball quantities of everything. For a large pot, I might use 1-1.5 lb short rib or oxtail, a large onion, 3-4 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 2-3 medium tomatoes or a 15 oz can of diced tomatoes, 2-3 carrots, about a quarter head of cabbage, and about three-quarters of a pound of potatoes.

Re: cold soups, there's a tasty West African chilled avocado soup that I've made occasionally, after it trended online about 15 years ago: soupe d'avocat Abidjanaise. It's mainly a blend of avocado and chilled chicken or vegetable stock, with some plain yogurt to add body and lime juice for acidity. Blend well, chill, and garnish with yogurt, a few dashes of hot sauce (optional), and a slice of lime. If you're going to add hot sauce, Tabasco works well because you'll actually want the acidity.