Shandong province is the source of Chinese culture and it’s also the source of Chinese alcohol. Every city has its own alcohol brand. Yantai’s ahcohol brand is called Yantai Guniang. Yantai has its own beer brand too. Although the most famous alcohol brand of Yantai is Changyu. Anyway, Chinese like to do business in the restaurant. Knowing the manners on the table would lead you to the success of your business. So what are those manners?

1. Position

The people whose seat faces the door ( 门 on the pic) usually is the one who pays the bill. In another word, the host( 主陪 on the pic). The people who faces the host is the 2nd host ( 副陪 ). Usually 副陪 is the host’s friend whose major purpose is to help host, accompany guests. The people on host’s right ( 1 on the pic ) is the most important guest on the table.  And the people on host’s left (2 on the pic) is less important. 3 on the pic is less important than 2 and 4 is the least important people. The rest of the people sit between 1 and 4 , or 2 and 3.

2. making toasts

The host will make the first toast when the first dish is served.  The host might make more toasts when more dishes are served.  After that, the second host will make his/her toasts. Then  1–>2–>3–>4. The people between 1 and 4, 2 and 3 will make their toasts after all 4 important guests are done with their toasting. The final word belongs to the host. There are no specific rules on how many toasts you can make. Just don’t mass up with sequence.

If you didn’t ink the deal during the meal, then you might want to do a Karaoke after…