"de" Vs. "le"

thecomakid

February 24, 2009, 05:02 PM posted in General Discussion

Hey. Just came across this sentence:

Nĭ shénme shíhou lái Zhōngguó de?

So if that means when did you come to China? how come the sentence ends with de and not le?

I thought le was the particle which conveyed the past, like

Wŏ chīfanle.

Or are de and le both interchangeable in this way?

Could I also say

Nĭ shénme shíhou lái Zhōngguó le?

Or

Nĭ shénme shíhou láile Zhōngguó?

?

 

Thanks in advance, people.