★If you get invited to a private dinner in one’s house, then you actually get a real Chinese friend. This kind of dinner is not for business. People get together to have dinner for a celebration. The one who initiates the dinner will pay the bill. You don’t have to rush to get the bill to pay on this kind of dinner. Know clearly what the dinner is for before you go. You have to prepare a present for a celebration of one’s birthday, one’s wedding or a festival and the like.

★红包(Hongbao) Guests would give money wrapped in red paper to the host before dinner. Red paper means auspicious. Wrapping money with red papers means guests’ bringing blessings. The history of Hongbao has been almost a thousand years. It is more like a deed of depositing a small sum among relatives and friends. Everything needs money in China, such as getting married or having a baby. Hongbaos given by relatives and friends could be a big sum of money. This could help you make through a financial difficulty. Chinese would keep the sum of each hongbao in their mind clearly. Once you give a hongbao to someone, Next time he will give you a hongbao in return. The money in hongbaos could range from 100 to 10,000 Yuan. But never put small change in a hongbao.

★Chinese hold the wedding according to tradition. The process is as follows: In the morning of the wedding day, the bridegroom accompanied by the best man will go to pick up the bride from her home. And then he has to make a kowtow to thank his parents-in-law for bringing up his wife. And then bring his wife together back to his home to make a kowtow in front of his ancestors. This means the bride turns into a family from then on. Next the new couple has to welcome relatives and friends at the gate of the hotel where they hold the wedding dinner. People would come to the wedding dinner with hongbaos and presents. After dinner, those best friends will stay to create happiness in the new couple’s bedroom. They may think out kinds of tricks to make fun of the new couple. It is said that the happier they are the couple’s life will be happier in future. This is very crazy and funny.

★parents would hold a dinner at the expiration of one month after their baby’s birth. The family planning policy makes the majority of Chinese have only one child. Therefore children grow more precious. It is not easy to bring up a child in China. Actually, much money is needed before the birth of a child. A certificate permitting having a baby and kinds of health certificates have to be obtained from the local government before having a baby. Next would be medical expenses on delivering a baby in the hospital and kinds of expenses on nutrition. Kinds of certificates such as residence card have to be done after the birth. There are many things need paying for. Therefore hongbaos for this dinner are inevitable.

★For many Chinese, the biggest dream is to buy a house. Chinese pay 30% down payment to buy a house and loan the remaining from the bank. Chinese’s monthly salary ranges from l000 and 3000 Yuan in most small and medium-sized cities, while the price of a house is around 1 million. Therefore it is very common to have the payment completely made in several decades. The household at this period is called “mortgage slave”. They live for paying off the mortgage. Hongbaos for this dinner are very useful to the “mortgage slave”.

★It is a happy thing that a kid can go to college. However, college students can’t afford their high tuition only with money earned by doing part-time jobs in China. This dinner is held at the time when the kid receives the letter of acceptance from a university. Relatives and friends come to this dinner with hongbaos. The hongbaos could be enough for tuition for the first year.

★The aforesaid dinners are most important dinners in China. There are certainly other kinds of dinners. After all this is Chinese’s custom of courtesy calling for reciprocity. Propose that a foreigner go to dinner just with a bunch of flower. They won’t mind.