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May 11, 2008
Culture Shock in the Chinese Restaurant
For our first dinner, we went to the Chinese Restaurant in the hotel just to play it easy. It ended up only being about 17-18 dollars which was not so bad. The experience though was certainly worth the price.
Although the restaurant was very cultural and had nice decorations and was fancy, the "experience" was how we were served. Luckily one of my friends speaks some Mandarin so some of the language barrier was removed. It is amazing how you are served in China. First, we ordered beers since it is only $3 beer and it's safe. However, with any drink you get, including Beer and Coke, they serve it to the entire group like its wine. With some Tsing Tao local beer, they came over to me and presented the beer to me, asked for my approval, then poured it equally to all five of us at the table.
Then, when we got our food (which, by the way, is completely "family style"...it's rude to get a dish for yourself and they place it on the spinning thing in the middle of the table) they present it and then serve it to everyone. The waitresses and waiters all stand by a table to serve on you. They care about their service so much. There is no tipping in China (although at the hotel there is a 15% service charge) because they feel they should always do their job to the best of their ability and should not be provided an incentive to do more.
Meanwhile, the air quality really is as bad as it's made out to be, and I am having a tough time breathing and my chest hurts. Hopefully I'll get used to it.
Posted by brianhe at May 11, 2008 08:31 PM