According to my experience with Chinese friends, when they travel to Spain, there are things beyond ham and flamenco that surprise people in China. Beyond the clichés there are things that although they seem normal to us, for them it is something exceptional.
The Blue Sky 🌞
Especially the Chinese who come from China’s most populous cities love our blue sky. They can’t enjoy it because of the air pollution, which turns the sky grey.
Yuck! Snails 🐌
Like many other foreigners, they are also surprised that we eat snails. Let us remember that the cliché that the Chinese eat bugs is widespread. The “bugs” are only eaten in certain regions of China, and not precisely the most populated ones.
Chinese restaurants adapted 🍜
For them, of course, it’s incredible that we eat more spring rolls than they do. Because it’s a typical spring festival meal in Chinese culture. And since we eat them with a fork and a knife and covered in sweet and sour sauce, that’s the last straw. They eat them with their hands and without sauce. It is as if in China they eat torrijas all year round and with chopsticks.
Trust 😉
For them it is rare for an unknown person to talk to you in the supermarket or on the bus and even have a chat with you. They are very interested in the trust we have with other people, especially in Andalusia older people, who call any girl “daughter” or “heart”.
The taste of licorice 😵
In China, liquorice is not eaten, which is very common in Spain. Counting on the fact that they have never tasted it, licorice seems to them a very strange taste. Either they love the flavour or they put on a very strange face when tasting it.