Social and Cultural Etiquette in China | CHINA TRAVEL TIPS

Hi guys, welcome back to another episode of China travel tips If you are new here I have some previous videos that I've made that covers a wide range of topics including scams to avoid simple Chinese phrases for traveling as well as just really Essential things you should know before you make your trip to China.

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Let's jump right into today's topic So today we're gonna be covering a social and cultural etiquette in China Now this is good for both business or pleasure If you're meeting someone new and you don't know what's the right thing to do.

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the topics We're gonna be covering today are greetings and we're gonna be covering dining etiquette What is the polite and respectful thing to do when you're dining out with a bunch of people? We are also gonna cover what's sort of the polite thing to do when you visit family and friends And also lastly I'm gonna cover some things that may seem not acceptable for you But it's totally okay to do in China So the first thing we're gonna cover today is greetings Now if you're there for business the person that you're meeting might already be aware of your cultural etiquette and they might offer their hand for a handshake however it's not the norm in China for people to shake each other's hands when they meet and also It's not normal to hug each other either so definitely no handshaking usually No hugging I actually will try to hug my grandma when I go back to visit and or anyone and I just always get this like stiff sort of uncomfortable vibe from people.

So no, no hugging It's not really acceptable in China or it's not really the norm Per se and also if your European the kiss kiss we don't do that either So those are the things that we don't do when you meet someone the normal thing is sort of just to nod and smile So it's like oh, hi my name is Dia nice to meet you and you probably care like Oh like hi Nice to meet you.

So No, no hugging no handshakes unless it's a business Situation and they already know that then they're the ones offering you their hand and no kisses no cheek cheek kisses So the second thing we're gonna cover today is dining out.

So dining etiquette when you're in a social or business situation.

now if you're dining with a large group of people What's most likely gonna happen is you arrive in the restaurant and the table has a giant circle that spins around and the host or whoever invited you out to dinner or lunch will be the one ordering from the menu and there's gonna be maybe like ten twelve fifteen or twenty different dishes on the table for everyone to share Now the polite and respectful thing for you to do is to not be the first person to dig into the food so always offer everyone else first and It's gonna be hard if you're a guest because people will urge you to eat first and it doesn't mean you absolutely Cannot be the first to eat because they will be insistent and you can accept however to show a form of respect You should try at least to rotate the table so that whatever dish is on the table is facing Someone else so that as a gesture of saying here you go first Now if you're really trying to be polite and impressed whether that's your client business partner or mother father-in-law the good thing to do is to pour tea or alcohol for them before you pour it for yourself pouring tea for someone is a really respectful thing to do and Sometimes you I see people that will do it for everyone around the table before they get the tea themselves So even if there's like 10, 15 people you just go around and offer to pour tea for everyone else So this is a very polite thing to do Okay, so you are full and you're ready to pay.

How does that work? There is a whole game of like tug-of-war when it comes to taking the bill who's gonna pay for the bill Everybody wants to pay for the bill So we don't really split bills and and you don't really split bills and I mean even amongst close friends sometimes one person just takes care of the entire bill.

What happens is if you are invited to To dinner you can try to offer to pay for the meal However, it's not very likely that the person will accept it I've seen families and relatives literally Physically fight each other just so they can pay the bill Now if you've been invited out a few times and someone always covers the bill and next time you want to pay for the bill What you kind of have to do is call the restaurant ahead of time and give them your card Information and tell them like don't let them pay I am going to pay for this meal and even then best luck to you because sometimes you think you went ahead to pay but The person that's dining with you might have called even earlier than you and given their card information to the restaurant.

I have even seen relatives who wins the fight and they get to pay for the bill and The person who didn't win ends up slipping like cash into their jacket pocket So it's really bizarre and but it is the thing to do is you always offer to pay for everybody in Just another side tip.

It's impolite to flash money around So even if you're trying to pay for the bill, that's just try to do it as discreetly as possible Ok, so number 3 What's the nice thing to do when you visit friends or family Oh Chinese people loves to bring gifts when you go visit someone So I think for elderly people it's really great to bring them like vitamins or some like health Supplement and you can also bring like the fall back for everything is you can bring fruits Like bananas oranges whatever fruit is in season That's what my family Would fall back on to bring if they don't have anything else and a lot of times we will say no Don't bring me anything.

Don't bring me anything It's really cute because people always urge you to not bring anything, but the person who's visiting always ends up bringing something Anyway, just be considerate that when you visit someone new they're not expecting anything from you, but it's the norm So if you want to sort of fit in or make them feel comfortable, like wow, they understand my culture You can definitely just bring a small gift with you and take it to the person that you're meeting So I'm gonna cover something really quick conversation topics to avoid just steer clear of political talk if you're in a dinner table just avoid talking anything about the government asking them questions about Like TM square or anything like that.

Just talk about the weather the scenic places You're excited to visit you can talk about food as well.

You can always talk about food Okay, so lastly we're gonna discuss some things that might not seem acceptable to you But it's totally normal in China.

That means people do it or you'll see people do it So just be aware of those.

Okay, it's completely normal for someone to spit on the street I am NOT saying this in a way to critique anybody.

It's just the accepted norm I know that some certain cities have more strict rules or the government the City Council tries harder to bring awareness to people to not do these things like spit on the street or blow their nose on the street But you will see a lot of that happening and it's just a norm.

I'm mentioning here for the hundredth time Bring your own tissue paper when you go out there would not be tissue paper in the toilet for you there would not be tissue paper sometimes even in the restaurant toilets and lastly the idea of Queuing up or the idea of waiting in line and is lost in some places in China like again I'm not saying everybody is like this but that's one thing is like lining up in public whether that's for the train the bus Or anything that involves waiting in line it's people it's a way better now than when I was little but there's still sort of a hard grasp on personal space as well as lining up and waiting your turn a lot of times when the train opens people who are waiting behind you will just Rush in or people might like carelessly bump into you.

These are just some of the things that are normal for instance you or I might get offended if someone bumped into me without saying anything and I'd be like But when I see that happen to other people in China they don't even pause for one second It's just like oh whatever he bumped into me.

That's fine.

It's normal happens every day.

So that's something to be aware of again If you're a foreigner visiting you're not necessarily Expected to know these things and it's not like you're gonna be super frowned upon if you don't know these things But now that you do you can impress the people that you're going to meet and you can make a great impression on them And I think just a general rule of thumb don't don't judge people based on your own reality.

In Western cultures It's so normal to walk by someone and smile and even say hello, but it that's not the way it is in China So just be aware of it just because for you your reality and your environment what you're used isn't matched up to someone else's culture doesn't mean that they have ill intentions or Rude mannerism towards you and that concludes our video for today in the China travel tip series I hope you enjoyed this video and please subscribe and give it a thumbs if you want to take advantage of my other China travel tips and guides videos all I've linked them all down below if you have Any questions or any thoughts actually about what I talked about today, please feel free to leave a comment below I would love to hear what you think and Whether that means your foreigner or if you are actually Chinese or maybe you were born in China, but moved somewhere like me I would love to hear all about your thoughts and if you have any other specific questions about how to interact in a social situation Feel free to ask me and I'll help you out in the best way that I can so until next time I hope you guys had a wonderful New Year's happy 2019 and Happy New Year and see you in the next video.