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1. Introduction Idioms are thought of as the core and essence of language and culture. Any language which has a long history is abundant in idioms. Many of the words often contain enough philosophical and incisive theories for people to study and they become an important part of modern English (Zhang, 2009, p. 8). For example: “As a man sows, so he shall reap” can be translated into “种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆”“To strike while the iron is hot” is translated as “趁热打铁”“A long road tests a horse’s strength and a long task proves a man’s heart” can be translated into “路遥知马力, 日久见人心”. Nowadays, with the prospering of international communication, the activity of idiom translation has become especially frequent and important. However, idioms are strongly combined with specific culture, which often leads to great difficulty in translation. Thus, studying the relations between idioms and a few important cultural aspects such as historical backgrounds, geographical conditions, social customs, religious beliefs, etc. will help us to understand the cultural elements in idioms. Since culture plays so important a role in intercultural communication, the cultural factors in different languages have been attracting more and more attention of linguistic scholars. In order to make intercultural communication more successful, many scholars have become interested in the study of cultural similarities and differences encoded in different languages. The study of cultural factors in different languages is of significance in intercultural communication as well as other disciplines such as linguistics, language acquisition, etc. This paper will expound the cultural differences between Chinese and English idioms and explore the role of culture plays in understanding of idioms. 2. The cultural backgrounds in idioms Idioms as a special form of language carry a large amount of cultural information. They are the heritage of history and the product of cultural evolvement. Generally speaking, Idioms come from