Chinese hospitality is truly one of the most welcoming in the world and its rules are very interesting. For example, let's talk about Chinese social dinner ritual: the guests must be taken to a very expensive restaurant which has to be very huge. Then, the host will order a lot of dishes of Chinese food to share. These social dinners are wasteful to the point of absurdity, all to make sure that the hosts have sufficiently provided for their guests. Quite often, about half the food is left sitting on the table.

Then, Chinese businessmen often invite their hosts to KTVs. Here, the drinking begins and an unspoken system falls into place. If the waitress is attentive, she immediately refills everyone's glass when it becomes empty. At the end of the night, just when you feel relief at seeing the last bottle emptied, the host orders five more, and then also orders them opened at once. There's no going back because you can't waste a full bottle...

But what is a KTV? Actually, this is the Chinese word for karaoke. KTVs have private rooms where you book in with your friends or colleagues for a few hours of fun.But you have to be careful and ask first what is the minimum spending, or you might have a very expensive bill you can't afford, and they probably won't be very kind if you try to negotiate prices...

KTVs are a norm in China, and if you go there you must experience it. This a place for having fun, singing, drinking, playing cubes. But we can't deny that there is a place of prostitution too; hosts can order girls as they can order some Vodka.

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One night, we were twelve students partying in a Chinese nightclub, and a man obviously drunk went talk to us on the dance floor. He invited us in his private KTV, and as long as we were twelve we said yes, just to see how it was really. The private rom was very huge, with screens everywhere and jeroboam of Cognac on the table (which is very expensive in China). Our glasses were always full. The man who invited us was with three Chinese women who were obviously prostitutes.

We were surprised to play cubes just each other without never talk to the man who invited us - already too drunk and falling asleep in the sofa. We realized that actually he just didn't care of us, just wanted to invite us to allow us to have a drink in the KTV both of us. China is a long story of waste of money and bling-bling; Chinese don't care about you, they just want to be able to offer a lot of alcohol to everybody, which is the characteristic of 'successful businessman' here. 

Then, the question is 'why all this drinking even with business partners?'. Actually, in China, drinking with business partners or would-be friends is a way of solidifying partnership. Finally, this experience could have been very weird but as we were 12, it was more funny than anything else!

HERE IS ONE VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE ABOUT CULTURAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FRANCE AN CHINA AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT. (here is the link)

Last month, the auto-show took place in Shanghai. One of the agence in charge of the hostesses was French Touch, a filial of GL events. I already work for it in France so I was able to work at the auto-show, on Mercedes-Benz booth. What an amazing human experience! Actually, I was the only foreigner working for it. All my colleagues were Chinese girl, who were fluent in English. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about their cultural habits, and to discuss about their point of view on foreigners' way of life.

In fact, Chinese girl are the subject of many stereotypes, but this job enabled me to understand the way they live. They were all at University, working in part-time job in order to buy Forever 21 clothes or the brand-new iPhone 6. They were wearing fake eyes colors due to lentils, and some of them had an operation to cut a part of their eyelids to obtain Western-eyes. I quickly understood that they were eager to look like Western girl, probably to make a difference. They were all putting a lot of white powder in the morning to change their complexion, curling their straight hair, and dreaming of blond hair. I have to admit that a Chinese girl with big blue eyes is weird, but the most strange thing for them was me.

We had to have lunch on the auto-show, and the choice of food was very restricted: pizza or Chinese food. As long as I hate Chinese food and can't stand rice anymore, I asked for a pizza on the first day, and all girls were very angry. One of them was so angry that I thought she was on the way to cry, just because she wanted rice as main dish. She said: 'I eat rice three times per day since 20 years, I'm not going to change it today.' At this moment, I understood that they really ate rice every time they ate something, even at breakfast...   

Chinese culture is so different from ours, but I have to admit that it has many good points for us: the low price of manucures you can do everywhere in the street or at the fake market, as cheap as permanent fake eye-lashes I tried too since I arrived. China is know for all the fake things you can find and buy for peanuts, especially when you are a girl. But be careful, fake is quite fun when it is controlled! 

Since I arrived in Shanghai, I see everyday something so strange in the point of view of a French girl: chicken feet. It is sold everywhere: at the entrance of the subway station at 7 a.m, in the street, between Pringles and Lays in Carrefour. The first time I saw it I found it soooo disgusting. But then, I started Chinese courses and my teacher told us it was one of the most common Chinese dishes. She told us how to call it in Chinese, and since we know it, we have realized that there was chicken feet inside few dishes we bought in the street without knowing what was inside. 

Actually, the first Chinese class consists in learning the different words you add after the name of the meat: if you want chicken you have to say chicken meat, or you may have chicken feet, chicken head, chicken stomach or chicken intestin; it depends on how lucky you are !

In 2014, KFC, the most popular chicken restaurant chain, listed 18,875 outlets in 118 different countries around the world whereas McDonald’s, the world’s largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, listed 34,492 restaurants in 116 countries. Then, the question at stake is why does KFC do better business than McDonald’s in China?

KFC was the first quick-service restaurant chain to enter China in 1987, and has now more than 4,800 locations here whereas McDonald’s entered China three years later and has now over 2,000 stores in China. Additionally, KFC is a part of the business of Yum!, an American brand which includes Pizza Hut too.

KFC is the most popular foreign brand in China, and it was built largely by catering to local tastes in its menu choices. In fact, KFC has more China-specific choices than McDonald’s; for example, they offer breakfast with local flavour. McDonald’s has added some menu items that address Chinese tastes, but hamburgers are an acquired taste in a country more used to pork, chicken and fish; more Chinese people like fried chicken more than hamburgers, although McDonald’s rolled out a new marketing plan aiming at young adult Chinese consumers last year.

KFC reinvented the fast food toy meal in China. Knowing that China has 557 million mobile Internet users, KFC created a mobile game and a digital campaign supported by traditional media. The app, available with a QR code given on figurines offered when you buy a KFC combo, avoids to set EXO alarm clocks and stickers to share on mobile app Wechat, which is the largest standalone messaging app by monthly active users (378 million in China). 10 EXO fan parties were organized in different KFC around China too, in order to welcome fans of the band.

KFC has better coupon deals than McDonald’s, which is very important to most Chinese consumers. About half of customers of either restaurants use coupons, but the best tasting stuff at McDonald’s, the beef, rarely has good coupon deals.

McDonald’s faces declining sales in Asia after China food scandal, while KFC marketing campaigns may have convinced people that KFC is more healthy in China than America; their message is that KFC in China is the “new fast food”, healthier than other fast food options abroad in China.

Even if China has suffered a string of product scandals over the past decade, foreign fast food brands are still seen as more reliable than Chinese competitors, though local brands have made big improvements in quality. Even if minor KFC supplier was investigated for providing expired meat, KFC is and will remind the leader in the fast-food industry for a lot of Chinese people, even if it is often the subject of negative reports.

To conclude, KFC is the biggest fast-food chain in China, with more than 4,800 outlets and plans to open 700 more this year, which is integrated into Chinese consumers’ lives and offer products that appeal to their local taste preferences. McDonald’s may have a good strategy for growing its Chinese business, but the company waited too long and let KFC build too large a lead. China remains for all of those the best opportunity of the 21^st century with a consuming class that is expected to double from 300 million to more than 600 million people by 2020.

There are many different belief systems in China. There are five religions in China: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Protestantism and Catholicism, but Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism are the three cultural practices most significant.There are also various ethnic minority groups in China who maintain their traditional autochtone religions.

Today I will talk about the Buddhism, based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha. There are many temples in China, and one near from our apartment in Shanghai, called Jing'an Temple. We went there during a sunny afternoon after class with Marline, and found it really amazing.

Today I will talk about the Buddhism, based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha. There are many temples in China, and one near from our apartment in Shanghai, called Jing'an Temple. We went there during a sunny afternoon after class with Marline, and found it really amazing.

It is like an escape from the stress of the town, a breath of fresh air in the chaos and the pollution. This place is really both relaxing and soothing. We told us that there were too many Chinese people there during the weekend so we went there during the week, and we saw some who went there to pray.