General Etiquette

With greetings, Chinese people generally ask each other, "Have you eaten?", when they meet each other. However, it is different with westerners. They do not mean they will treat you to a meal. It is a common daily greeting just like “Hello”. This is very important, and many foreigners to mainland China misunderstand the expression. Now, more and more people have started using "nihao" as a standard greeting. Of course, sometimes just a nod to each other will do.

With regard to shaking hands, which is very similar to that of western countries since that is where the custom is from; if you are greeting a lady, wait until she intends to shake hands. People with lower rank would also wait until those who with higher rank intend to do so.

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Expatriate writer Warren Rodwell has been in China since 2002, and teaches university postgraduates in Chengdu. Many of his feature stories, reviews & photographs have been published online or in hardcopy media form. Warren also narrates documentaries and administers various websites as part of his efforts to promote Chengdu & Sichuan culture(s) more globally.

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