I recently returned from an amazing (and inspiring) trip to Beijing. There are things that are common in China that may seem strange to 'Westerners'. I'm interested what Chinese people find strange when visiting Europe?
I found the following (random) things weird and inexplicable:
我觉得下面这些事儿还蛮怪的：
1. How much people like to wear hoodies. I personally find them quite ugly. Can’t remember any of my Chinese friends who wears hoodies on a regular basis;
大家都超喜欢穿连帽衫……可我真觉得连帽衫很丑啊！我还真没有中国朋友动不动穿连帽衫的。
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（真的挺丑的……）
2. A lot of Americans eat cereal for breakfast. Even plain pancakes are considered a weekend delicacy;
很多美国人早餐就吃点谷物啥的，连最平凡无奇的薄煎饼都搞得跟周末打牙祭一样。
3. How cool people generally prefer their classrooms and offices to be during summer. Say it’s 90 degrees outside. People would rather turn their A/C units on the coolest setting possible, have their rooms at 60 degrees and wear long pants and blazers than keep their rooms at 70 degrees and wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts;
4. High personal taxes on fresh graduates. My effective tax rate is much higher than that of a former classmate who works at financial services firm in Beijing, despite the similar length of work experience we have and the comparative income levels we’re on;
5. How many mentally challenged people seem to wander around in big cities. I understand that this is a life choice, but many of them do look like they’d be better off with some serious medical intervention.
1. Lockless of doors inside a house, such as, the doors to the bedrooms normally have no lock, only the bathrooms with locks.
屋子内的各个房间都没有锁！只有浴室有……
（我只能祈祷和你合租的都是正常人……如果你正在合租的话）
2. Shoeless: god, you can see people wearing absolutely no shoes walking on the street, driving a car, etc. the shoes business in Western mustn’t that popular comparing to China I assume.
居然不！穿！鞋！可以看到好多人不穿鞋在街上走，不穿鞋开车……好吧，西方的卖鞋行业肯定没有中国生意好
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3. Eating fruits/vegetables without washing them first. This happened on a lot of my western friends around me, they bought some fruit or vegetables from the supermarket and they ate them right way. In China, we wash them before eating for sure.
4. Adults need to return the money they borrowed from their parents/ parents need to return the money they borrowed from their kids. For example, my western friend need some money for his wedding, so he borrowed some from his parents, and the money counted as a loan, that needed to be returned to his parents when he could. In China, I barely see this.
5. Female need to change their surnames after marriage. Chinese don’t. This is rather inconvenience to me, changing surname means replace a new ID, a new driver’s license, a new passport, etc, and if divorced or remarried, need to do them all over again. Why is this I wonder?
6. No savings. Young people with jobs tend to spend all their earnings in the west, a lot of my western friends have no savings, or when they have some, they go for traveling, or buy a car or whatever they been saving for.
7. Most westerners absolutely know nothing about China, their impression of China is either China in 50 years’ ago, or very poor country, or simply a very crowd street, or smog.
8. Waiting in queues to see a doctor when with bleeding wound . My friend got his forehead broken and was bleeding, wasn’t seriously but still he was bleeding. He was sent to the hospital shortly and he had to wait in queues for ages with no doctors came to look after him.
Unfortunately he waited for quite a long time and a nurse passed by, and he and his friends begged for help, and finally that kind nurse gave him some medical alcohol & cloth for a simple treatment. And asked him to go home. In China, same situation, when you arrive in the hospital, you would have a doctor to help you shortly and get your wound treated shortly, surprising, right?
9. Brothel in some western countries are legal. You will be held in custody if caught going whoring /prostitution in China.
在一些西方国家，妓院是合法的！而在中国，你要是敢去从事卖淫嫖娼活动，发现了一定抓你。
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10. Wearing shorts in winter. Many westerners wear shorts even in winter time, sometime you can see people wearing down jacket with short, I don’t quite get it, if you feel cold that you wear a down jacket to get warm, why you leave your legs uncovered? In China during winter time, many people even wear long johns to keep their legs warm. Legs come first.
I would like to talk about North America and Europe. 以下只针对北美和欧洲的盆友哈： Why do you guys love cold & ice water so much? 为啥你们这么喜欢喝冷水/冰水？
Prefer to take bath in the morning rather than at night? 为啥喜欢早上洗澡？不是晚上？？ Western women can recover so fast after giving birth. Most Chinese women have to stay at home for at least one month. 中国女性生娃后得做月子才行，为啥西方女性生娃恢复得那么快？
Grandparents don't help take care of grandchildren. 爷爷奶奶辈居然不帮忙带孙子？？
Parents and children sign agreements when they borrow money from each other. For most Chinese parents and children, there is no “borrow”, but only “gift”. 孩子向爸妈借钱居然还要打借条？在中国，父母孩子之间很少谈“借”的，要钱么，直接给你就是了。 Love leggings+UGG. If we wear leggings in China, others will be scared…it's like we forget to wear trousers 喜欢穿紧身打底裤+UGG雪地靴……如果你在中国直接穿个紧身打底裤出门，会吓着别人的……感觉就跟忘了穿裤子一样！
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People love thrift stores 喜欢逛二手店！ Westerners really love sunbath, especially in the UK and Canada. Chinese normally avoid strong sunshine in order to keep skin pale… 中国人以白为美，基本上不喜欢晒太阳，但是西方人（尤其英国和加拿大）真的好喜欢日光浴啊…… Couples pay separately in restaurants and supermarkets. 即使是夫妻，下馆子和逛超市居然还AA！ Giving birth to babies without marriage. (No offense. We just think that marriage can give baby a more stable environment)
没结婚居然就生娃？！（无意冒犯哈，只是我们中国人觉得婚姻更能给孩子一个稳定的成长环境） Political correctness. People incline to shift topic if you mention religion, race, and separatism. They would like to talk more if they're familiar with you, in secret.
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