Chinese tour Europe and avoid its foods

Evan Osnos has a delightful and informative essay in the latest issue of The New Yorker. Titled “The Grand Tour: Europe on fifteen hundred yuan a day,” it tells of Osnos taking a European tour with a group of Chinese. There are lots of interesting cultural nuggets in his story. For example, the ones about food (here):

We were approaching the hotel—a Best Western in Luxembourg—but first Li briefed us on breakfast. A typical Chinese breakfast consists of a rich bowl of congee (a rice porridge), a deep-fried cruller, and, perhaps, a basket of pork buns. In Europe, he warned, tactfully, “Throughout our trip, breakfast will rarely be more than bread, cold ham, milk, and coffee.” The bus was silent for a moment.

And later:

We reached Venice in the early afternoon, and people were hungry, urging Li to stop even if there wasn’t a Chinese restaurant. We had been in Europe for a week and had yet to sit down to a lunch or a dinner that was not Chinese. (Nearly half of all Chinese tourists in one market survey reported eating no more than one “European style” meal on a trip to the West.) But Li warned that Western food would take too long to serve, and he recalled a five-hour dinner in Spain. “If you eat Western food too fast, you’ll get an upset stomach,” he added. “Save it for your next trip.” Everyone consented, and we stopped for a twenty-minute lunch at La Pagoda Ristorante Cinese, on the outskirts of town. In Venice, we crisscrossed the lagoon by ferry, visited a glass factory, rented a fleet of black gondolas, and had time for a quick stop at Prada before heading back out of town. On the way to La Pagoda for dinner, Zhu picked up a local real-estate circular. “Look at this—a hundred and ten thousand euros for a house!” he cried. “Cheaper than America. Much cheaper than Shanghai!”

Image going to Europe without eating the food!

Perhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.

 

Comments

[limpopo accommodation]

I read most of this article and found it very interesting. I didn't know Chinese people were so reserved regarding eating western food!

[Tory Burch]

erhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.

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erhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.

[christian louboutin]

erhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.

[louboutin]

erhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.

[christian louboutin shoes]

erhaps those responsible for attracting Chinese tourists and businesses to Oregon should look to the quality of our Chinese restuarants.