Hospitality

 
One of the first things that I noticed when I arrived in Beijing Airport was how friendly the Chinese are. I was struggling with my suitcases and a couple of Chinese businessmen helped me. However, as we were westerners in a second tier tourist destination, lots of Chinese people stared at us or took photos of us. When we visited the Great Wall in our free time, we must have had hundreds of Chinese tourists ask to take photos with us.
Dining out was always interesting, I would always point to photos on the menu as my mandarin was appalling and most Chinese waiters that I came across didn't speak any English.
Whenever I ate out with Chinese residents, the lack of formalities involved shocked me (particularly so as I am studying hospitality at University). Often, Chinese buddies would click their fingers, raise their hand or shout for the waitress as soon as we were ready to order. Once a waitress didn't come soon enough so a buddy marched up to a waitress to inform her we were ready to order. The staff seemed used to this and acted very hostile to the customers in return.
There always seemed to be at least one dish that no one was sure what was in it.
No tipping occurs in China, one of the other students told me he tried to tip in a restaurant once but the staff refused to accept it.
Often the menus in China seemed more like a large catologue than a menu as they had many pages with large photos.
Occasionally, (apparently in more expensive restaurants), we were required to pay after ordering rather than after eating.
Street food was always around, interesting food such as starfish on a stick or chicken feet. We were recommended against eating street food as it does often cause food poisoning. However, I know many people tried some of the street food with no problems and they said it was delicious.