My guide Farah, a tall, slim woman in her late 30s，wears jeans and a simple manteaux -- the required robe women must wear in public, covering neck to knee. Her long, straight black hair is hidden beneath her headscarf, but visible as it curls at her neck.

We’re heading to Tajrish Bazaar, in north Tehran (capital of Iran)，to explore 10 different kinds of dried plums, and other goodies. We choose the Metro—Farah for its convenience, and I，for a chance to go underground in Tehran, because it provides a picture of the city most tourists never see.

It's mid-morning. Women and men sit separately, but the rule relaxes during busy times, like now. We, along with a few other women, clasp our hands around a pole, standing next to men, young and old in the air-conditioned, modern carriage. Two stops later, and about 20 commuters fewer, segregation happens naturally -- women at one end, men at the other, still within view, but separate.

A handful of fashionable girls admire their own reflections in the window. They wear tight leggings under their brightly coloured robes, pushing back headscarves and boundaries. We find seats next to a group of conservative women dressed in black cloaks called chador. They’re nothing like the other women I have met, a sisterhood of outspoken opinions, most of them liberal. “We are a nation with one language,” Farah says, “divided in two—-traditional and modern. ” Farah tells me it all began, not with imports from the West, but with the 1979 revolution. A combination of access, education and a bad economy created a society where women now have independence, careers and husbands happy to help around the house with chores and children*

Living in a culture that is different from your own can be both an exciting and challenging experience. The following are 6 cultural differences between China and the USA to help promoting mutual understanding.

Money

As is well known, the Chinese are conservative when they are planning to spend money, but far fewer American families are saving money for emergencies and education than their Chinese counterparts (对等的人)..

Privacy

Chinese people do not have the same concept of privacy as American do. They talk about topic such as ages, income or marital (婚姻的) status, which Americans think is annoying and disturbing.

Family

In China, elders are traditionally treated with great respect while young are cared for. In America, the goal of the family is to encourage independence, particularly that of the children. Unlike the Chinese, older Americans seldom live with their children.

Friends

Chinese people have different meanings to define friends. Just hanging out together time to time is not friendship. Friendship means lifelong friends who feel it deeply necessary to give each other whatever help might seem required. Americans always call people they meet friends, so the definition of friends is general and different. There are work friends, playing friends, school friends and drinking friends.

Education

Chinese people value education and career more than Americans, who in turn attach more great importance to good character and faith, which they think are of great value in their life.

________

Basically China values the community and the USA values the individual. If you achieve something in the USA, it’s because you are great. While in China, if you achieve something, it’s because the team, or family, or company is great. Everything you do gets owed to the greater whole, while in American individual achievements are celebrated.

Many everyday American expressions are based on colors.

Red is a hot color. Americans may say they are red hot about something unfair. They are red hot when they are very angry about something. The small hot-tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hot for their color and their fiery(辣的) taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.

Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pink when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It comes from the fact that many babies are born with nice pink skin that shows that they are in good health.

The color black is often used in expressions. People describe a day on which everything goes wrong as a black day. A blacklist(黑名单) is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.

The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling in his stomach may say he feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.

Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or green-backs. Dollars are called greenbacks because green is the color of the black side of the paper money.