asyncio byte data transfer

[gary]

strange, When I print data after reception in python, I get the pattern b'\x01' (Client transmits a "1"). When I retransmit it to client back, it displays the "smily face" symbol, which is equivalent of ALT+1 code. Subsequently When I change the client code for string processing, it works correctly. So I was womdering that python must be transmitting strings and not bytes.
btw my client code is written in C (mingw)

Please clarify.