diff --git a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
index 019718cc53a9..1e43f2cc62ae 100644
--- a/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
+++ b/sql/hive/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/sql/hive/HiveExternalCatalog.scala
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.analysis.TableAlreadyExistsException
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.catalog._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.catalog.ExternalCatalogUtils._
 import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.expressions._
-import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.{CaseInsensitiveMap, DateTimeUtils}
+import org.apache.spark.sql.catalyst.util.{CaseInsensitiveMap, CharVarcharUtils, DateTimeUtils}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.command.DDLUtils
 import org.apache.spark.sql.execution.datasources.{PartitioningUtils, SourceOptions}
 import org.apache.spark.sql.hive.client.HiveClient
@@ -429,12 +429,17 @@ private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(conf: SparkConf, hadoopConf: Configurat
     val properties = new mutable.HashMap[String, String]
 
     properties.put(CREATED_SPARK_VERSION, table.createVersion)
-
+    // This is for backward compatibility to Spark 2 to read tables with char/varchar created by
+    // Spark 3.1. At read side, we will restore a table schema from its properties. So, we need to
+    // clear the `varchar(n)` and `char(n)` and replace them with `string` as Spark 2 does not have
+    // a type mapping for them in `DataType.nameToType`.
+    // See `restoreHiveSerdeTable` for example.
+    val newSchema = CharVarcharUtils.replaceCharVarcharWithStringInSchema(schema)
     // Serialized JSON schema string may be too long to be stored into a single metastore table
     // property. In this case, we split the JSON string and store each part as a separate table
     // property.
     val threshold = conf.get(SCHEMA_STRING_LENGTH_THRESHOLD)
-    val schemaJsonString = schema.json
+    val schemaJsonString = newSchema.json
     // Split the JSON string.
     val parts = schemaJsonString.grouped(threshold).toSeq
     properties.put(DATASOURCE_SCHEMA_NUMPARTS, parts.size.toString)
@@ -745,7 +750,8 @@ private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(conf: SparkConf, hadoopConf: Configurat
         // If this is a view created by Spark 2.2 or higher versions, we should restore its schema
         // from table properties.
         if (table.properties.contains(DATASOURCE_SCHEMA_NUMPARTS)) {
-          table = table.copy(schema = getSchemaFromTableProperties(table))
+          val newSchema = CharVarcharUtils.getRawSchema(getSchemaFromTableProperties(table))
+          table = table.copy(schema = newSchema)
         }
 
       // No provider in table properties, which means this is a Hive serde table.
@@ -796,7 +802,8 @@ private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(conf: SparkConf, hadoopConf: Configurat
     // If this is a Hive serde table created by Spark 2.1 or higher versions, we should restore its
     // schema from table properties.
     if (table.properties.contains(DATASOURCE_SCHEMA_NUMPARTS)) {
-      val schemaFromTableProps = getSchemaFromTableProperties(table)
+      val schemaFromTableProps =
+        CharVarcharUtils.getRawSchema(getSchemaFromTableProperties(table))
       val partColumnNames = getPartitionColumnsFromTableProperties(table)
       val reorderedSchema = reorderSchema(schema = schemaFromTableProps, partColumnNames)
 
@@ -836,7 +843,7 @@ private[spark] class HiveExternalCatalog(conf: SparkConf, hadoopConf: Configurat
       storageWithLocation.properties.filterKeys(!HIVE_GENERATED_STORAGE_PROPERTIES(_)).toMap)
     val partitionProvider = table.properties.get(TABLE_PARTITION_PROVIDER)
 
-    val schemaFromTableProps = getSchemaFromTableProperties(table)
+    val schemaFromTableProps = CharVarcharUtils.getRawSchema(getSchemaFromTableProperties(table))
     val partColumnNames = getPartitionColumnsFromTableProperties(table)
     val reorderedSchema = reorderSchema(schema = schemaFromTableProps, partColumnNames)