Hong Kong and Taiwan
Hong Kong and Taiwan use traditional Chinese characters which automatically “disqualify” their crossword puzzles for those of us who know only simplified Chinese characters.
China mainland
China mainland (which uses simplified Chinese characters) could have been a good source of Chinese crossword puzzles for us. However, the following can make it tough for us to play with their puzzles:
differences in terms used, e.g.,
o we say警察, they say 公安 【police】
o we say牛油, they say黄油 【butter】
o we say 德士, they say 出租车 【taxi】
their puzzles may refer to Chinese culture & history which many of us may not be familiar with, e.g.,
o 诸葛亮的字 【孔明】
o 杭州名菜东坡肉和王菲歌曲《但愿人长久》的
词都出自于这位古代文人兼美食家 【苏轼】
their command of the language means that their primary school’s crosswords may be too challenging for our primary school kids.