Learning the local nuances

Moroccan ambassador to China Jaafar Ali Hakim and his wife, Nouria El Alami, at a Moroccan Food Festival in Beijing.Photo provided to China Daily

When people visit Morocco, she says, they too usually want to return.

"You like to go back and back and back. For the nature, for the tradition, for the culture, for the saveur (flavor), the aroma, but also for the people."

A 14th-century Moroccan traveler named Ibn Battuta also spent several years in China, where he served as an adviser to the emperor. While here he kept a journal, which is well-read in Morocco, El Alami says.

"He wrote everything. He was talking about the plates, about the porcelain, about tea. He described everything－the houses, the cuisine, the architecture and the traditions."

She compares Ibn Battuta to another early visitor to China－Marco Polo: "Marco Polo was a trader but Ibn Battuta was a judge and he wrote about history. He traveled not for business or for trade, but to discover."

El Alami, whose doctorate is in biomedical discovery, looks at life, like her 14th-century predecessor, as a voyage of discovery and views herself as a constant learner.

"If we don't learn every day, we don't exist," she says.

The couple's son and two daughters, aged from 19 to 34, are all currently studying in Paris and, while El Alami misses them, she has plenty to keep her busy.

She is planning an exhibition of her art at the 798 art zone in Beijing this year, helping to organize the annual diplomatic bazaar and will again this year take part in the Asia Art Expo from May 9 through 12, which she says is the largest such event in Asia.