January, 2012 | CIE SOURCING

Archive for January, 2012

SMEs in China Mired in Hardship

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Xixi in China Export News, Export to China Comments Off

Although it was in the festive first lunar month, when visiting friends and relatives, Kong Guoliang, owner of Cheng Feng garment finishing plant in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, still seems worried: “This spring festival is not really festive at all, for I have not gotten back the arrears (over 100,000 RMB) yet, which accounts for half of our profits last year! As there will be a huge demand of capital when we start operation after the spring vacation, I am at a total loss about what to do.”

Ever since last year, there has been a huge slowdown in Zhejiang’s economic growth rate. The reason behind the slowdown, on one hand, is because China has increased the intensity of macroeconomic regulation and control, reduced the size of credit and capital supply, which coupled with the rising of a variety of raw material prices, has given rise to labor costs. Meanwhile, as Zhejiang’s economy is highly export-oriented, the weak international demand and poor economic recovery last year generated a direct impact on small and medium enterprises in Zhejiang Province —their profit margins are compressed and profits reduced.

Cheng Feng garment finishing plant provides frosting and bleaching service for foreign trade clothing company. According to Kong Guoliang, this year the business is much harder than the previous year: fewer orders, workers’ wages keeping on rising, and with payment delayed, purchasing of raw materials requires pay in cash.

Kong Guoliang said: “This situation is likely to continue. If it were not for the sake of maintaining relationship frequent customer and the benefit of my devoted employees, I would rather rent out factory buildings for it would be more profitable.

As for Zhang Kuifeng, the General Manager of Qiaozhuo Apparel Company, what he worried about is the recruitment situation this year. According to his estimation, this year may usher in more “labor shortage.” As prices rises, the pressure increase and apparel consumption will be weaker, which will directly cut low the clothing business profits, whereas the worker’s wages already hit the upper limit: at present the monthly wage of ordinary sewing workers is more than 4000 yuan, which basically denies any further room for improvement. Businesses to raise wages is to limit the company’s current monthly income of an ordinary sewing more than 4,000 yuan , no further increase in the basic of space.

Chinese Internet Users’ Exceeding of 500 million

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Xixi in China Ecommerce 1 Comment »

China Internet Network Information Center said on Monday that by December 2011, the country’s Internet user had reached 513 million, an increase of 12% over last year.

Foreign Media: network users in China are more than 500 million. An industry group said currently the mainland China has more than 500 million Internet users, and the growth momentum remained strong.

China Internet Network Information Center said on Monday that by December 2011, the country’s Internet user had reached 513 million, an increase of 12% over last year.The mainland mobile Internet users increased by 17.5 % to $ 356 million. Another point of growth is the group purchasing industry experienced an increase of 244.8% to 64.7 million by the end of December 2011.

Compared with the previous year, last year’s micro blog users increased by 3 times, nearly half of Internet users use this service platform to obtain information and point of view. Last year is a watershed year for the microblogging to become a broadcaster of major events. in July last year, the high-speed rail accident had triggered heated discussion over the micro blog.

The Chinese government encourages people to use the Internet to do business and acquire education, but tries everything within its power to prevent public access to the politically sensitive or pornographic content. The heated discussion and speedy information transmission on the micro blog has plucked the nerves of the local government. Therefore some of the city introduced micro blogging operator rules, requiring new users with real-name registration.

Agence France-Presse reported on 16 January under the title of Chinese Internet users reached 513 million people. According to the latest data, last year Internet users in China reached nearly 56 million, with the total number exceeding 500 million, of which nearly half use the micro blog. China Internet Network Information Center said the people using more traditional communication tools such as e-mail, forum or blog are declining, which poses a great challenge to China’s effort of internet control. The government now is worrying about the internet’s influence over public opinions and some politically sensitive information are being screened.

According to China Internet Network Information Center, the number rural internet users also increased by 8.9% to 136 million. But there still is a huge gap. Last year, more than 70 % people in Beijing used the Internet, while in Guizhou, the poorest Province in China, only 24.2 % people has the access to internet.

The Associated Press reported on January 16 that with hundreds of millions of new users accessing internet via mobile phones and tablet PCs, Internet users in China gave rise to a profitable explosive growth of internet companies, which has brought heaps of fortune to many Chinese entrepreneurs.

Alibaba VS Globalsources Vs Made in China, Comparison Of China’s Major E-commerce Platforms

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Xixi in China Ecommerce, Export to China 8 Comments »

As most small and medium-sized enterprises tend to find overseas suppliers through China’s B2B websites, This article commits to make a comparison between the top 3 Chinese B2B websites in aspects such as business scopes, service items, features& advantages and charge rates.

Alibaba
www.alibaba.com

Alibaba is one of the most renowned B2B platforms. And one of its core businesses is the “China Suppliers” service oriented to the export enterprises. According to Alibaba’s third quarter financial report released in November 2009, its registered users at that time reached 45.27 million, with 34.79 million from around China and 10.48 from overseas. And altogether 578.9 thousand are subscribers, among whom 84.866 thousand are China’s Top Suppliers( also known as Gold Suppliers)

Business Scope: Alibaba platform is a comprehensive domestic & foreign trade platform. Its shops and businesses cover most industries. The Wholesale Platform launched in September 2009 also added a small-amount trade platform aims at the export market.

Service Items: on November 3, 2009, Alibaba B2B updated its product service on its international site aimed at foreign trade services and launched a new ” Exporter ” service , while the original ” China Suppliers” was upgraded to the “Global Treasure “. We have made a detailed comparison between these two services (see the table below).

Table Comparison of the Major Services of Alibaba’s Exporter and Global Treasure

NO.	Major Service Items	Exporter	Global Treasure
1	Data Steward	yes	yes
2	Showcase Products	10	30
3	Video Capture/Automatic Uploading	Self-Shooting	Shooting Provided
4	Buyers’ IP location	yes	yes
5	Enterprise Mailbox	yes	yes
6	Enterprise Business Website	Yes ( 21 sets of templates)	Yes ( 21 sets of templates)
7	Listing of Priorities	Yes	Yes
8	Third-party Enterprise Authentication	Yes	Yes
9	Number of Product Pics	No Upper Limit	No Upper Limit
10	Pics Watermarks	Yes	Yes
11	Number of Dynamic Product Pics	2 sets	2 sets
12	Private Showroom	yes	yes
13	Customer Training	Yes	Yes
14	Promotion on Global TradeExpo	Yes	Yes
15	Big-Buyer Procurement Opportunities	Yes	Yes
16	Price	119,800 yuan / year	172,800 yuan / year

The main difference between these two services lies in three aspects: first, the price difference. Second, the “global treasure” service added a function of product shooting and 20 more showcase products than the “Exporter” service.

Features & Advantages: Compared with Chinese supplier products in the past, the “Exporter” and “Global Treasure” increased several applications such as Data Steward, Automatic Video Upload, Buyer’s IP Location and Enterprise Mailbox, etc. The process would start with identifying the buyer source, and then integrating the inquiry, sales, purchasing customer management processes and carrying out promotion data management, so as to better understand the buyer’s behavior, find the promotion blind spots and to make precise follow-up marketing.

Ever since 2007 Alibaba has expanded its business to the Japanese market. At present the price of its service is 2000/year. And recently Ali Baba has carried out in-depth cooperation with the DeepCorp, a procurement platform service provider with a weekly purchase of 30 billion yen and completed a deal with Japan’s local warehouse operator SBF. According to the deal agreement, SBF will open up 800 square meters of warehouse for the Chinese enterprises to store samples, and the SBF will quickly pack and distribute the samples in accordance with system requirements and the usual practice of Japanese companies. Currently the feedbacks and orders from the Japanese buyers on the Alibaba Japan website reached nearly 1500 per day. And as Alibaba launched the small amout foreign trade platform, the enterprises are granted with the opportunity to transform between different exports modes.

Comments: for export enterprises just starting out to do e-commerce, Alibaba provides a relatively comprehensive one-stop service platform. With a lot of advertising activities at home and abroad in the past few years, Alibaba already gained great popularity in the B2B industry, which attracts steady website flow and purchasing groups.

Globalsources
www.globalsources.com

Global Sources is a multi-channel B2B media company, through its English-language media , Global Sources website and a large number of exhibitions held annually, the company promotes the export trade in the Greater China region .

Services Items:

GlobalSources’ sellers’ service usually is in a form of integrated resources available. It owns monthly magazines such as ESM, Electric System Design, etc. and it participated in more than 100 international trade expos every year and has set up more than 12 (29 sessions) professional trade fairs in over 10 cities.

The price range of GlobalSources service is over 100 thousand RMB, and the cost will be increased along with the changing services packs.

Features & Advantages: Global Source’s obvious advantages lie in that it accumulated a large number of high quality international buyers groups within nearly 40 years. Among them, the world’s top 20 retailers are using the global resources’ service.

The Combination of online and offline interaction is an important feature of the global resource service. One of them is the “Private Sourcing Events.” Ever since 2003 when the event was first held, it was held a dozen times every year. This “one to one” mode of procurement will help suppliers have the opportunity to directly contact with buyers and to improve the accuracy of trade matching .

In 2009, Globalsources extend the service “Video Buyers Exclusive Meetings “(started in 2005) to Asian customers and the suppliers are pre-screened and pre-matched. Currently, this service was used more often for buyers from India, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets, who rarely set up procure offices in China.

The mutual authentication between qualified buyers and sellers is also a major feature of Globalresources. “Verified suppliers” system implemented in 2007 counted on the world’s trusted independent third-party certification body,Bureau Veritas, to certify the applicants.

Meanwhile, the Globalresources will provide some buyers’ import activity reports to the suppliers who get enquires from the internet. These reports, provided by PIERS, supplier of marine data includes information of imported product types, valuation of goods and port of entry, etc, as well as company background data and contact information provided by Dun & Bradstreet. This service will help the supplier to review the quality of the buyers in advance.

Comments: Globalresources’ advantages lie in a dozen of relatively concentrated industries like the electronics, textiles, precision works, handicrafts, etc. as its buyers are of good quality, its integrated marketing program requires the supplier to have a certain scale of operation, production capacity and financial strength. Therefore, medium and large industries are more likely to garner benefits from this platform.

Made-in-china
www.Made-in-china.com

Established in 1996, www.Made-in-china.com dedicated itself to providing e-commerce service to China’s foreign trade enterprises.

According to the Prospectus released on November 18, 2009 by Focus Technology, the official network operator of www.Made-in-china.com, by June 30, 2009, registered members at the e-commerce platform of made-in-China.com scored 3617 thousand, including 10,000 registered paying members. And this website had already posted over 12.10 million effective products and market information.

Business Scope: Ever since the Made-in -China.com has established. It has taken the foreign trade promotion as its main business. More than 70% of visitors are from the English site. The product information covers 1500 kinds from 24 categories. And information about the Machinery, hardware tools, and auto parts, building materials, decorative materials and consumer electronics industries are particularly prominent. By the end of May 2009, monitoring data had shown that of all the buyers of the Made-in -China.com, 25.8 % are from Europe , 22.2 % are from North America , 16.5 are from the Middle East and 14.6% are from the Southeast Asia.

Service Items: just as most of its similar enterprises, Made-in -China.com focused mostly on advertising services, such as displaying product catalogs, trade board, etc. and in the services for its paying members, service enhancing products such as TopRank, Spotlight Exhibits, and BannerPro enjoyed great priority and popularity in searching results and displaying placement.

Made in China.com’s annual membership (Gold-Level) service fee is 31,100 yuan, including SGS certification services, 12 products displayed at the homepage, 200 products released on the website and 2000 keywords for search. It provides online keywords references and 95 companies display templates to showcase the company’s unique style; 7 user-defined section to showcase the business’ strength; seven main products that enjoy priority in the catalog search, which have access to information priority review and professional customer support.

Features & Advantages: Its Domain name made ??in china are the most popular search keywords among the foreign buyers, making the website itself very easy to be searched.

Made-in-China.com takes pride in low- mass Inquiry, emphasizing the principle of accurate match. In the competitive rankings, the keywords product price varies with different catalogs, but only the top 10 search results would be used for bid ranking service .

Made in China.com has worked with Switzerland SGS to launch a certification service. SGS would appoint personnel to certify local suppliers and record its actual condition as so to bring out a sole certification report for the buyer to inquire, which greatly enhances the buyer ‘s trust in Chinese suppliers .

Recently the website has introduced services such as live video and three-dimensional display (3D Demo service), which can transmit the business scene and the details of specific products , features to the buyer on line.

Comments: as currently Made-in-China.com has no overseas websites, its international influence is relatively limited. But as the websites has been focusing on the promotion of products made in China for a longtime, it still has certain influence among the overseas buyers group. Its advantages are mainly concentrated in the clothing, handicrafts, transport, machinery and other industries. For SMEs with limited capital budget in advantageous industries and relatively low pricing mechanisms, this website is a great choice.

Arbitration Fee Schedule for Foreign-Related Cases

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Xixi in Arbitration, Legal Comments Off

(This fee schedule applies to the arbitration rules Article III, arbitration cases item 1 and item , and come into force since May 1, 2005 )

For arbitration, each case shall charge a filing fee of 10,000 RMB, including the costs for review of the arbitration application, filing, input, computer program application, and filling-up.

In case when the amount in controversy is undetermined or under special circumstances, the amount of application fees shall be determined by the secretariat of the Arbitration Commission or the secretariat of the branch of the Arbitration Commission.

If the arbitration fees are paid in foreign currency, the total amount shall be equivalent of the RMB stipulated in the arbitration fee schedule.

In addition to charging fees according to the Arbitration Fee Schedule, the Arbitration Commission may collect other extra, reasonable and actual expenses in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Arbitration Rules.

Cancellation After Verification & Tax Refund In Chinese Enterprises

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Xixi in Import Export Process, Knowledge 1 Comment »

Required Materials for Cancellation after Verification &Tax Refund

First: Materials Required for Cancellation of Foreign Exchange after Verification

1, Certificate for Cancellation of Foreign Exchange after Verification

2. Customs Declaration Form (For Export Proceeds& Verification Purpose), [After the Form is submitted through E-Port]

3. Bank Slip

4. Export Verification Form (in duplicate)

Required Materials for Tax Refund

1. Certificate for Cancellation of Foreign Exchange after Verification (for Export Tax Rebate Purpose, Already Written -Off)

2. Customs Declaration Form (for Export Tax Rebate Purpose) [After the Form is submitted through the Export Tax Rebate Sub-section of the E-Port]

3. Income Invoice (certified)

4. Export Invoice (Not Always Required)

Bounding the 4 sheets with front cover and back cover according to the orders above

Besides, one USB flash disk and another 3 sheets are also needed.

To carry out this procedure, please refer to another top post: The working technique of Tax Rebate System 9.0. After carrying out all the procedures, another 3 sheets can be printed out and transferred to the USB flash-drive

1. Summary of Export Tax Rebate Sheets (one sheet)

2. Detailed Export Statement of Export Tax Rebate (In Triplicate)

3. Detailed Stock Statement of Export Tax Rebate (In Triplicate)

4. The Materials Generated after the Official Declaration Shall be transported to the USB Flash-Drive

Second: The General Export Process

1. Apply for the Verification Sheet

2. To make on line port record of Verification Sheet and custom declaration materials (provide the packing list, invoice, customs power of attorney , general trade declaration , verification form , etc. to the freight forwarding for the sake of custom declaration)

3. Hauling Service& Factory Loading (Noted: most of the cases are of the FOB price and freight forwarder is designated by the customer. If circumstances permitted, one can arrange the haulage instead of using the designated freight forwarder out of the concern of the cost)

4. Starting Shipment

5. During the shipment, to ensure timely tax rebate, factories shall be asked to make timely billing, verification, remittance and order requests.

6. After the documents were returned, the Certificate for Cancellation of Foreign Exchange after Verification and the Custom Declaration Form shall be submitted to the E-port first.( enterprises can choose to carry out this procedure before the return was made)

7. Cancellation after Verification

8. Tax Rebate

Third, the Time of Export Tax Rebate & Documents

The general procedures are as follows: Invoice Certification—Bank settlement (Bank Slip Provided) — Cancellation after Verification—Tax Rebate

But in reality the process can not always be followed for many reasons, such as the remittance having not been received on time. Under such circumstances, other approaches can be adopted. Here is a general introduction:

First, if the remittance is not received on time, one can always make a short-term loan on from other bank slips.

Second, Many places allow the reports of tax rebate to be carried out 90 days in advance without the cancellation of verification so as not to exceed the time limit, which is called reports for incomplete documents. It is plausible to supply the verification later.

Please note that the deadline of the verification is 180 day from the export. If the remittance is not received within 180 days, even the tax rebate report made in advance will be as useless as those domestic. Therefore, calling for the remittance is rather important to.

The Time Schedule:

1 Tax reporting period: 90 days

2 Verification Period: 180 days

3 Invoice Certification Period: 90 days. But there is an unwritten rule in the foreign trade enterprise need to certify the invoice within 30 days.

Fourth, Documents Record Keeping

After the tax rebate is reported, the documents should be recorded within 15 day. The documents needed are as follows:

1. A Detailed Statement for Documents Record

2 BL

3 Shipping Note

4 Station Receipt

5 Purchase Contract

At some place two more documents were specially required: one is a copy of declaration the custom, and the other is a Detailed Export Statement.

Bound the documents with cover and place it in the Division for future reference.

Chinese Business Etiquette Guide Part 7 Drinking Culture And Manner In China

Posted on January 09, 2012 by Xixi in Business Manners, Culture Comments Off

(1) If you are a wimpy drinker, then never ask for even one sip. What you should do is to enjoy the food and that’s all.

(2) If you are sure to drink some alcohol, then you should not haggle over when, how and how much to drink—you should follow the rules:

1. As an old Chinese saying goes, the more you drink the deeper your friendship is. But you should not mention it when you are drinking with others.

2. Keep a low profile, save your strength to the right moment.

3. You should wait to propose your own toast till the leaders finished their toasts.

4. It is common for many people to propose a toast together to one people , but you should not propose a toast to many people at a time unless you are a leader.

5. When you propose a toast, if you are not going to clink glasses, you can decide how much to drink according to the situation such as the drinking capacity and the mood of other people. But as a toaster it is not appropriate for you to drink less than the others.

6. When proposing a toast, if you are going to clink the glasses with the others, it’s really generous for the words goes like “I will finish mine, you at will!”

7. Pouring wine for the leader or the guests in time and do not drink on the leaders behave. When you indeed have to do so, drink the fill gladly as if you enjoy it—not doing a favor for your boss. If your boss is not a good drinker, you have to euphemistically reject the people who want to propose a toast.

8. When holding up a glass (beer glass), with right hand hold the glass and left hand under the glass. You have to remember your glass should be lower than the others, but if you are a leader, do not put too low.

9. If no special guests are present, you’d better clink glasses in clockwise order, do not be partial to one while neglecting the other.

10. You should make a toast before clink glasses, or else what to drink for?

11. No business talk on the table. If you drink well, the business will naturally go well too.

12. Follow the rules and mind your words. If you have really done something wrong. You should drink to show your apology.

13. Suppose the wine is not enough, please put the wine in the center of the table and do not pour in turn in case the wine should run dry.

14. Finally, always remember to keep a full glass, or else people will fill it up and make you drink it all.

15. Mind your tongue and behavior after you have finished drinking. Do not boast around and talk beyond yourself. Do not wave your chopsticks around or point fingers at the others. And do not slurp when having soup. And do remember burp and fart are really impolite during a banquet. If you must do so, go and find yourself a bathroom.

16. Do not keep on saying” I can not drink alcohol” (if, in fact, you really do drink alcohol), in case others call you a hypocrite. Believe it or not, people can see you right through when you are lying about your drinking habit.

17. If the boss were to propose a toast to you, you should finish your fill all at once to show your respect. And do remember to hold the glass with both hands and place your glass very low.

18. Peanut is a good side dish for a alcohol drinker. Keep a clear head to take care of the others. Even a glass of yogurt and hot water will make others think you are sweet and considerate.

Chinese Business Etiquette Guide Part 6 Leaving The Table

Posted on January 06, 2012 by Xixi in Business Manners, Culture Comments Off

Generally speaking, the banquet and tea party will last for more than two hours. There are some techniques you have to know if you want to leave the banquet after meeting some friends. The common practice is that because of the one guest leave the banquet midway, the whole group of guests will leave in a hubbub. And this would be very rude to the host. In order to avoid this, you just need to bid farewell with several people around you instead of saying goodbye to everybody, and then leave quietly.

If you want to leave the banquet midway, you have to tell the host the reason and apologize for the early leaving, because it is not polite to leave without any words. Leave immediately after saying goodbye to the host and do not make the host wastes too much time chatting with you at the gate. The host needs to entertain other guests and do a lot of things, taking too much of his time will be inappropriate. Some people will ask the guests he knew if they want to leave together, which would be very likely to make the banquet ends in advance at last. This kind of awkwardness is not easily forgiven by the host, so try your best to be respectful and avoid those improper behaviors.

Chinese Business Etiquette Guide Part 5 Drinking Tea

Posted on January 05, 2012 by Xixi in Business Manners, Culture Comments Off

The manners of pouring tea are not only applied to the guests that pay a visit to the company but also suit for business dinner. First of all, the tea set must be clean. After the guests entered, let them have a seat first and then preparing tea. Before preparing tea, you have to clean the tea set, especially for the tea set that long time no use and with dust and dirt on it. It’s really a healthy and polite manner to make the teapot and teacup ironed with boiled water before blunt tea and pour tea. It is impolite that offering the tea with unclean tea set. If the guests see the dirt on the teapot or teacup, there are no people willing to drink your tea.

In general, most companies use the disposable cup to entertain the guests, so you have to use a cup stand to avoid the guests directly touch the hot cup. Secondly, the water amount should proper. First the tea leaves should not be too much or too less, with more leaves the tea flavor will be too thick and with less tea the tea flavor will too delicate. If the guests have his taste, do it as the guests demand.

About pouring tea, no matter using large or small cup, in order to avoid to wet the desk, chair or floor, the water amount should not be too much, and it really make the host and the guests feel awkwardness if the water scald the guest carelessly. At the same time, the water amount should not be too less. It will make the guests feel you are just put on a show or without conscientiousness if the water just covers the cup bottom. Third, use a proper way to offer tea. According to the Chinese tradition, the host should use both hands when offering the tea to the guests, unless his hands are disabled. But now most young people do not know this tradition, they just offer the tea with only one hand. There are also some aspects you need to pay attention when offering the tea with both hands. For the teacup with cup ear, using one hand to grip the ear and another hand to hold the teacup bottom; for the tea cup without cup ear, it is too hot to hold, someone just hold the edge of the cup rabbet to offer the tea for the guests. This can be avoided be scalded in a way, but it is not graceful and healthy. The guest would not enjoy licking your figure prints when drinking tea.

Refill

It’s your duty to fill the water when your boss and the guests’ tea cups run dry. You can make a hint to the waiter to add tea or just let the waiter leave the teapot on the desk and you do it by yourself. This is the best way to conceal the awkwardness of answering the difficult questions. Of course, when adding tea, the leader and the guests come first, and then is your turn.

Chinese Business Etiquette Guide Part 4 Toast Etiquette

Posted on January 04, 2012 by Xixi in Business Manners, Culture Comments Off

As an old Chinese saying goes, the more you drink the deeper your friendship is. There is also a lot of knowledge on the wine table. The details are as follows:

1. You should wait to toast until the leader finished. When toasting, propose a toast with both hands and stand up.

2. It is common for many people to propose a toast together to one people , but you should not propose a toast to many people at a time unless you are a leader.

3. When you propose a toast, if you are not going to clink glasses, you can decide how much to drink according to the situation such as the drinking capacity and the mood of other people. But as a toaster it is not appropriate for you to drink less than the others.

4. When proposing a toast, if you are going to clink the glasses, it is really generous for the words goes like “I will finish mine, you at will!”

5. Pouring wine for the leader or the guests in time and do not drink on the leaders behave. When you indeed have to do so, drink the fill gladly as if you enjoy it—not doing a favor for your boss. If your boss is not a good drinker, you have to euphemistically reject the people who want to propose a toast.

6. When holding up a glass (beer glass), with right hand hold the glass and left hand under the glass. You have to remember your glass should be lower than the others, but if you are a leader, do not put too low.

7. If no special figures are present, you should better clink glasses with guests in clockwise order, do not partial to one while neglecting the other.

8. You should make a toast before clink glasses, or else what to drink for?

9. There is no talking about the business on table, if you drink well, the business will naturally go well too.

10. Suppose the wine is not enough, please put the wine in the center of the table and do not pour in turn in case the wine should run dry.

The way to propose a toast:

1. The host should toast the guest of honor

2. The accompanying guest toast the guest of honor

3. The guest of honor should propose a toast in return

4. The accompanying guest toast each other

Notice: As a guest, it is not polite and respectful to the host to propose a toast out of order.

Chinese Business Etiquette Guide Part 3 Table Manners

Posted on January 03, 2012 by Xixi in Business Manners, Culture Comments Off

We Chinese are particular about what we eat; meanwhile we are also concerned with how we eat. Along with the growing popularity of the etiquette in the workplace, table manners are also demanding more attention. The following are some Chinese table manners. Hope it would help you to get an idea on how to handle the table manners with high proficiency.

At the beginning of Chinese dinner, the first wet towel served by the waiter is for the hands, not the face. Along with lobster, chicken and fruits would come a small basin in it some lemon slices or rose petals are floating on the water, which is for hand-washing not for drinking. When washing your hands, you should wet your fingers in turn and wash them quietly, then dry your hands with wet towel. Please pay attention to the manners when having dinner.

You can introduce the features of Chinese food to foreign guests and they can choose dishes as they like, do not repeatedly urge the guests to eat. Some people like to recommend food or even picking up dishes for the guests, but you have to know the foreign guests are not used to this; they may grow tired of your repeated advice and think “I have said I do not want to have it, please stop it!” Of course, if you attend a banquet, please do not rely on the others to help you with the food, if you do so you would certainly have nothing to eat.

When the guests take their seats, please do not start eating until the host proposes a toast as a starter. You have to pay attention to the manner when picking up food, only do so when the dishes come in front of you; do not pick up before your neighbors; the dishes should not be picked up too much at one time and you should chew your food slowly, which is not only good for digestion but also a part of table manners. It is a greedy performance to eat with big chunk and gobble. Do not be picky eaters or just eat what you like best, beside hasten to pick your favorite dishes to your own plate is not good behavior too.

Dining manner should be gentle. For example, avoid touching the neighbor, be careful not to make the dishes out of the plate or spill the soup. Please do not make slurping sound when drinking the soup or chewing the dishes. Do not chat with others when eating. Do not spit the bones or the fishbone directly to the desk, you had better cover your mouth and pick it out on the plate with your chopsticks. Do not take the dishes again after it fallen to the desk. Do not play with the tableware or point to others with the chopsticks. Do not use your hand to pick teeth. When you use the toothpick to pick teeth, please cover your mouth with the towel. Do not let the tableware make noise. After the dinner, you can use the napkin or the towel served by the waiter to wipe your mouth, but do not wipe your face or chest with it. Avoid burping or belching and do not leave the table unless the host so hinted. .