Three visits, countless discoveries: a Chinese tour guide’s view of Iran
TEHRAN – A Chinese tour guide named Jill has painted a portrait of her encounter with Persian culture and lifestyle as she is paying a visit to Iran for the third time.
In an interview with ILNA, Jill outlined that Iran is a country with a rich history and full of scenic beauty inhabited by friendly people, which makes it impossible not to love.
Mentioning her stops at Tehran, Shiraz, Yazd, Kashan, Isfahan, Hormozgan, Qeshm, and Kerman so far, Jill expressed her experience as “astonishing”.
In response to how she describes Iran to tourists intending to visit Iran, Jill underscored the numerous exceptional aspects including, natural wonders, hospitable people, and a wide variety of cultures living together in peace, to name a few.
“Indubitably enshrine Iran on your must-visit destinations list,” Jill noted.
Regarding the different tastes of food in the two countries, the guide stated that Persian foods seem a bit odd to Chinese tastes in the same way as Iranians consider Chinese foods.
She further detailed the food differences, pointing to the dissimilarity in food recipes and styles of cooking developed due to environmental and cultural factors.
“Predominantly Chinese foods are boiled in comparison to Persian foods which are cooked with frying methods,” Jill stated.
Referring to the location as a notable factor in living costs, Jill highlighted that the majority of Chinese can be described as adventurers who love to explore the wonders all over the world.
She also emphasized that China had a great share of international tourists in the pre-COVID-19 era.
Jill also addressed the lack of awareness among the Chinese, regarding the Persian prodigious civilization and culture due to the misinformation published on social media.
It’s noteworthy that Jill is a tour leader of a group comprising several well-known Chinese influencers with a slogan of nature and climate diversity who are traveling to different cities of Iran intending to create content as a part of “Iran Salam” familiarization tours to introduce the glamorous capacities of the country to foreign tourists.
As revealed by related officials, the next destination of Chinese influencers is planned to be Razavi Khorasan province, which is home to a vast number of tourist spots, thousands of which are secured as national heritage, notably eight of which have UNESCO labels.