Colour terms are part of the basic vocabulary of any language and, as such, are taught at the first stages of foreign language learning, including Chinese. However, their symbolic meanings, metaphorical uses and collocations are not usually part of the curriculum. The lack of knowledge in this respect may lead students to reach the wrong conclusion that colours are universal and similar across cultures. Chinese and Spanish present remarkable differences at both the linguistic and the cultural levels as far as colour terms are concerned, potentially causing incomprehension or misunderstanding in certain intercultural settings. This paper aims, on the one hand, at offering a descriptive analysis of colour terms in Chinese, including their main linguistic features (such as morphology and collocations) as well as their symbolism and metaphorical uses. On the other hand, it will suggest a series of learning activities to develop students’ linguistic and sociocultural competence in this respect. Boosting students’ acquisition of sociocultural competences in the foreign language classroom, such as those associated with colours, raises their awareness of cultural aspects behind words and improves their performance when communicating in intercultural contexts.