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.