China - The Dining Experience

I had to write a report on my China experience, so I thought I would also post what I wrote on our blog for anyone interested. So here goes

As a member of the recent Northern State University delegation group that traveled to China, I am grateful for the opportunity I had to learn about China's people and culture. Our group was in China from Jun 15-27, 2015. Throughout the trip, I learned that though our countries and cultures are very different, we have more similarities as a people than differences. Some of the areas of the trip that especially impressed we were the dining experience, cultural learning, and the people, who I found to be kind and hospitable.

The Dining Experience

During our trip, our delegation group had many opportunities to enjoy the Chinese dining experience. This experience involved sitting around a single table with our whole group so that we could all see one another and have good conversations. Various dishes were brought out and rotated clockwise on a disc so that all of the attendees could choose which items to place on their own plate. Of course, only chopsticks were available for many of these meals, so foods was transported to individual plates and then to our mouths with these chopsticks. I appreciated the opportunity to decide which dishes I would try to eat, rather than having to eat every dish. Some of the dishes I didn’t want to try, but the majority of them I enjoyed and loved to eat.


Every lunch and dinner in China was a big event. In the United States, people often eat and finish a meal in less than 15 minutes. In China, there was an abundance of food offered to us, and often it would happen that just when I thought I was finished eating, more main dishes would come out for us to eat. Most lunches and dinners lasted for an hour or more, but one or two of our more formal meals lasted for two or three hours.

My favorite types of dishes to eat included fried and breaded meat dishes. These dishes came in many forms including lamb, beef and pork. Pieces of meat in these dishes were often smothered in tasty sweet and sour sauces. I also enjoyed rice and noodle dishes, which are actually quite common in the United States. Some of the dishes that I enjoyed that were new or different included a papaya prepared with an orange sauce, Peking duck placed in a bread bowl, and sweet potato cooked with a sugary glaze and covered with a sesame seed coating.

In China, much business is conducted through formal meals. In these meals, the host of the meal sits opposite to the room entrance and important people sit next to the host. The second host sits across the table from the host. Alcohol is served, and the host is expected to give three toasts and invite all to drink after each toast. Then the second most important host also gives three toasts. Other people also give toasts. Finally, the most important person at the meal offers a final toast to end the meal. On our trip to China, this most important person was often our senior faculty member on the trip, Dr. Elkader.

Personally, I don’t drink any alcohol, beer or wine, so I drank water during these formal meals. The toasts during formal meals included statements about partnerships between people and our continued success. This is an important part of the Chinese way of doing business because during these meals, people form bonds by talking and learning about each other.

The dining experience in China was pleasant in general. Meals were often more formal and lasted longer than the meals I am used to, but I learned that good conversation and business can happen during a longer meal in which everyone is sitting around the same table. Some foods that were new to me were very pleasant to taste.