Back in 1986, Hiroaki Ota, a Japanese psychiatrist, identified Paris Syndrome: a state of psychological trauma experienced by first-time Japanese visitors to the City of Light when they discovered that the French capital was far grittier than the glamorous vision they were expecting.
Three decades on, an even larger number of Chinese visitors to France — attracted by the same visions of fashion, romance, culture and history as Japanese tourists in the 1980s — are grappling with similar culture shock. But while some have been afflicted, the allure of France — and Paris in particular — remains extremely potent.
The results of the latest large-scale annual survey of Chinese outbound tourists by China Confidential, a research service from the Financial Times, show that France remained the most popular long-haul destination among Chinese travellers and the sixth-most-popular destination overall, up from tenth in the 2014 survey. This was borne out by official tourism statistics showing that France received 2.2m Chinese visitors last year, a jump from 1.7m in 2013.