It is widely known that Chinese cuisine has the longest history in the world, and food lovers all would love to go to China. Beijing has a collection of world famous cuisines with uncountable luxury restaurants, which impress tourists with their size, large scale and packedness everyday and every night.Eating is more of an issue in China than in many other countries. In North America, many people say that the food here is just to fill the stomach, and people are not so critical about its color, smell and flavor. In my experience, that's one of the reasons why Chinese immigrants here are all nostalgic and are likely to return to China after getting their citizenship.
While Chinese have a big food culture, Westerners are more critical about the comfort, convenience, tidiness and style of living. If you visit someone's home here, you will always marvel at how artistic and stylish their lobby, hallway, living room, bedroom, bathroom can be, even though they are not necessarily luxurious.
Having visited the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Chateau de Versailles in Paris, many people realize that Chinese emperors didn't care about enjoying life as much as Western emperors did. Simmons, sofa, eiderdown quilts and pillows, toilet bowl and bathtub were all invented by Westerners. When Louis XV of France was sleeping in his king-sized sofa bed, Kangxi the Great of the Qing Dynasty in China had to take a bath in a wood bucket without tap water. And when Kangxi the Great was sleeping on his hardwood bed, Louis XV might be smoking a cigar in his bubble bath.But the Chinese emperor always had over 100 dishes served during a meal, and for European royalty, it was no more than a soup, a salad, steak, and then a dessert, along with wine. This is the cultural difference.
The pictures above are of some of the restaurants I've been to in Beijing and some residential buildings in Vancouver, Canada, which are very typical.
The above picture is of the bedroom of the wife of Louise XIV at Palace Versailles. The picture below is of the bedroom of the Empress Cixin at the Forbidden City in Beijing.
