How are Chinese treated in Cairo?

I've been to Mogamma yesterday, the central administration building here in Cairo. I've been there to the visa section and there you see a good example of which foreigners a living in Cairo.
There was quite a number of chinese and a good number of asians in general. Here in Heliopolis, the part of town where I'm living, I see chinese whenever I go shopping.
I am pretty sure the culture gap is HUGE! The asian approach to behaviour in public is totally the opposite of the egyptian
Me personally I think any foreigners are welcome in Egypt if they aren't black, sorry to say. in the coming future chinese will be even more welcome, people will be keen to learn chinese.
If I had to choose a language to learn, for me or my kids, between lets say french, spanish, chinese - I would definetely choose chinese

Hi Glad to meet the first Chinese  here ,i already been in Cairo 3 months now,especially the first month its very hard to me,the weather the food ,plp thinking and the language,although before i had 3 years experiences working for Arabic company,but i still feel hard when i touch Egyptian culture!
Many Chinese plp living in Cairo,some of them living in Maadi and 6 Oct also have  .

你好，很高兴在这里认识你，我来开罗已经三个月了，住在十月六号城，我在这边学习语言，有问题可以问我，一个女孩子在开罗不是太安全，特别是不了解当地的文化！
Joy

thanks for that information, you work for Arabic company for 3 years in China? or somewhere else. Tell me more about the Egyptian culture. what's you think it's a the biggest challenge for you? I know that time management must be a big issue, I've heard that they don't always show up on time, is that right.?  Sorry for all those questions i have, i just wanna figure out more before going there. Thanks a lot in Advance.

thanks Caty in cairo, good to know that there are a lot chinese there. since you mentioned, how does Egyptian approach to behaviour in public? Chinese are really difficult learn, although it's my native language, but even me myself think it's a complicate language, why you want to learn chinese?

Yes, yaqianq, I am sure chinese is a very difficult language to learn, even more difficult than german I am currently still trying to master arabic so its not very realistic for me but maybe for my children
I would not generalize "egyptian behaviour", but maybe cairene behaviour. As far as I know asians are restrained in public, not showing emotions in order not to invade the others privacy and dignity. Privacy and dignity are very important, am I right? Not so in Egypt , at all
Littering is another issue. Don't know about China but some asian countries have very harsh fines on littering in the street, or spitting and such behaviour. Here anyone would drop anything in the street, smoke anywhere, spit anywhere, no care if this would bother the others.
You've mentioned the timing. Yes its true, if someone told you, I will meet you at 9, he or she would not show up before 10
One thing you might have in common with the egyptians: its not nice to say "no" like "no, its not available", "no, I can't come", "no, we don't offer this service" or something simple like "I don't know"
Anyone would try to postpone the request, to find any excuse or any other answer in order not to say "no". I think that should be familiar for chinese, right?

Did I get that right, you got to know an egyptian man by the internet? Please be careful, there are a lot of scammers out there. You will find a lot of useful information here in previous threads. Get informed about relationships between men and women here in Egypt, it might be very different from your country.

Regards

Katrin

Thats sooo right!!!that's what i've experienced.
He's doing the trading business, about electronics stuff. So he travels a lot to china, and we met. He's always late for dates, even from the beginning, I cant understand because being on time shows that you really care about it, put it on priority, who will be late for a date everytime!? So I got mad a lot of times. Then it gets better, cuz he knows that I'm care. Then he traveled back to Cairo, told me he will come back soon, I asked him “when will you be back” so many times, he always said a date but then postponed it. I was so disappointed and angry, he said he just doesn't wanna say no to me. I think it's such a bad excuse. Now I understand why, thanks for all the information you gave, so useful!!
You are right about Asian countries in public. Maybe you will get fine if you litter in some important public places. But mostly its not that serious, I think polices do not have so much time to fine all the people who litter in public. So it's not just about law. It's about moral habits. Well educated people do not litter or spit in public. If you did, you are consider not a good and well educated citizen.
Thanks again for the information, could you please tell me more about men and women relationships in Cairo? Can I trust Egyptian guy?

yaqianq wrote:

I cant understand because being on time shows that you really care about it, put it on priority, who will be late for a date everytime!?

You are right about Asian countries in public. Maybe you will get fine if you litter in some important public places. But mostly its not that serious, I think polices do not have so much time to fine all the people who litter in public. So it's not just about law. It's about moral habits. Well educated people do not litter or spit in public. If you did, you are consider not a good and well educated citizen.

Can I trust Egyptian guy?

Being late is very common, that is true, but a lot of egyptians I personally know are very much on time. Its exactly as you said, its about priorities. My cleaning lady is very punctual and so was my arabic teacher. Some jobs require being punctual, some others don't. Being late for a date is not very polite, I think even here in Egypt.
About littering: thats exactly the difference here, especially in the best and most expensive schools you will find kids dropping everything. The idea here is, there is staff to clean so why should I? In five star hotels you will find the bathroom a mess after egyptian ladies, sorry to say, but experienced that many many times.

I do trust MY egyptian guy and he never failed to deserve that trust. So of course you can not generalize this kind of things. The rule between men and women here is if you want a serious relationship you have to get at least engaged or married. No honorable egyptian man would ever accept a lady paying for him, not even a cup of tea, no matter how high or low his income is. Thats for the start. Of course many many more rules and traditions

Regards

Caty

Culture differences must be interesting to experience although with a lot challenges. What country you came from? You married a Egyptian guy?

I am from Germany and yes, I am married to an egyptian

great to know that. I met a germany girl during my visit to Thailand. she's really nice. Thanks again for all the information. 

You're welcome! So whenever you come to Egypt, let me know and lets arrange for a meeting. It came to my mind that I personally know a chinese lady living nearby, she is the friend of a friend. So we could have a very international meeting

Same as you treart Egyptian in Beijing   

You will be treated fine, not much discrimination here, and you have your man, so he will be there for any help. Welcome to Egypt

Simsim69 wrote:

Same as you treart Egyptian in Beijing   

so are you Egyptian in Beijing

Mohamed.Morsi wrote:

You will be treated fine, not much discrimination here, and you have your man, so he will be there for any help. Welcome to Egypt

Thanks, glad to know that.

Caty in Cairo wrote:

You're welcome! So whenever you come to Egypt, let me know and lets arrange for a meeting. It came to my mind that I personally know a chinese lady living nearby, she is the friend of a friend. So we could have a very international meeting

i like the idea of international meeting must be very interesting. i think i will visit Cairo first and then go to Luxor around next Feb. but not sure about the whole plan yet. just keep i touch

ya qianq, ni hao , i'm mostafa , egyptian , born and rasied in cairo , my major is chinese (yea i already speak chinese), but i'm currently working in a german software testing company so i'm not using it for the moment (currently using english and german at work) , i graduated already 2 and a half years ago, if you are interested, we can meet, as i'm always interested in meeting new people from all over the world.

我的中文的名字是小胖，我长时间没联系我的汉语，如果你有兴趣我们俩可以见面.我的手机号码是零一二二一五一六六六三
再见
小胖

sorry as i didn't reply to your original topic... you have to pay attention to who you are meeting. most (yes most) egyptian guys would like to have some fun with a girl and that's it (doesn't matter where she is from) .... i'm egyptian and i'm a guy ... but i have to say that this is something that i despise about the guys around here. they think they are having fun that way ..... anyway just choose your friends carefully .... cheers

MostafaAhmed666 wrote:

sorry as i didn't reply to your original topic... you have to pay attention to who you are meeting. most (yes most) egyptian guys would like to have some fun with a girl and that's it (doesn't matter where she is from) .... i'm egyptian and i'm a guy ... but i have to say that this is something that i despise about the guys around here. they think they are having fun that way ..... anyway just choose your friends carefully .... cheers

___________________________________________________________________________________________

I agree more with you~Not most of Egyptian guys ,its 99% Egyptian guys and the 0.5% r gays ~Lol

Here we have a chinese female friend (A) but not familiar,she married with an Egyptian,and most of time she shows her life and husband in social network.and thats so funny ,several days ago that egyptian guy find my another  girl friend (B) by wechat and wanna date with her and marry her!we feel surprise that egyptian guy is A 's husband! My God ! the world is so small~we decide to ask him out and play with that bad egyptian guy the end of this month when i have time and finish my exam~Lol

By the way ,we should tell this story to A or not?

Joy_Shi wrote:

Here we have a chinese female friend (A) but not familiar,she married with an Egyptian,and most of time she shows her life and husband in social network.and thats so funny ,several days ago that egyptian guy find my another  girl friend (B) by wechat and wanna date with her and marry her!we feel surprise that egyptian guy is A 's husband! My God ! the world is so small~we decide to ask him out and play with that bad egyptian guy the end of this month when i have time and finish my exam~Lol

By the way ,we should tell this story to A or not?

it sounds embarrassing, but yea i admit that such stuff does happen .... i traveled to several countries and got to know a lot of people from all over the world. i gotta say , in Egypt, people tend to be a bit stupid .... males here think they can own the whole world and do whatever they want whenever they want and they think they are gangsta because they do so lol

关于你的问题，我真的不知道怎么回答。太复杂， 不知道可不可以提供自己的注意，但是我想你的女朋友应该知道她人不是个好人....

My god,that's terrible, I knew that in Egypt men can marry 4 wives. So that must be a culture thing. Im really confused now, he seems so sincere with all the things that he said. He said he wants to meet my mother and all my friends and wants me to meet his mother. But I just can not 100% believe in him. everytime I thought maybe he's serious that he might be the one. Something happened disappointed me and showed that he's not that into this. That's why I wrote all these search for help. I knew it's stupid,I'm not a little girl anyway, but I just hate the feeling of uncertain.

Thank for being so honest. I guess you must be the left 0.5% Egyptian guy.LOL.  Guess I have to go to Egypt to check by myself. He actually stayed in American for 2 years and 1 year in England(that's what he told me,if it's right). Wish he's not the kind of man who think they can own the whole world.

Really from my part , I think if u don't know Islam well and u don't wanna covert to Islam , so pls stay far away from Egyptian men!
Cuz we China background has big difference from Arabic culture! When love finish all problems will come,

He said he's not a believer. He eat pork and drink. So must not a Islam. If he tells the truth.

I know a good Chinese man who is my neighbor at Maadi and he is a real good gentleman and also successful business owner as he owns a famous Chinese car brand in Egypt.

P.S : this forum is not for discussing religions!

don moe wrote:

I know a good Chinese man who is my neighbor at Maadi and he is a real good gentleman and also successful business owner as he owns a famous Chinese car brand in Egypt.

P.S : this forum is not for discussing religions!

I know, thanks for reminding, my fault. 

all nationalities are treated well in egypt

In my opinion you should tell A
you can play with the guy the way you like, and teaching him a lesson would be great
But also A has the right to know who is she living with

There are many chinese In the headquarters I work in. Ur culture is really different. But most most of them now are imitating us in smoking more than 2 cigarettes after their lunch break. I knew that Egyptians could change anyone but never thought it will get to chinese people too

Even Chinese plp lived abroad many years , nothing can change their Chinese stomach!

Joy_Shi wrote:

Even Chinese plp lived abroad many years , nothing can change their Chinese stomach!

Chinese food are great. Ahah. You will know if you try it

I worked a year in China - smokers there always smoke at least 2 in a row. Probably not imitating habits here...

Ok so am I the only one shocked by the statement that black people are not welcome in Egypt? Well, guess what, I don't know which black people you are talking about but those I know about are skilled professionals sent here by international organisations to provide works and services that this country is obviously missing. So sad that at this century people still have this mindset and are so ignorant. What makes me sadder is that no one here, including Egyptians, even tried to contest that statement!

Hi everybody,

Would be best if we can avoid starting a racist controversy here and be off topic.
I remind you that the subject of this topic is : how are Chinese treated in Cairo.

Thank you all

Priscilla 

Because unfortunately is true
It  has nothing to do with qualification or even beauty, it's a fact that Egyptians do not like to admit much, but racism is widely spread in Egypt
and racism was never logic so don't try to give it reason
it's not only against blacks, it's against a lot of differences

Well Priscilla it would have been better for you to state that from the very first response to this post which was undoubtly racist, isn't it?

I have several black African friends here in Cairo. They all feel discriminated against. In fact, I took one out last Thursday - the establishment allowed me in (Caucasian) but denied her entry. She said it is common here...