In northern China， apart again from more or less numerous exceptions， you will be served more gruff and unfriendly or even not at all， this trend expanding to ShangHai， and being most prominent in BeiJing where indeed most of the authors of books on China have lived， often in foreigner’s districts. Chinese say that in BeiJing you have to file for being served， and such an application may be rejected or approved. In BeiJing you will be surprised when the service comes along voluntarily， sometimes you need patience in frequently and intensively waving or calling. Germans are familiar with this attitude (I use to claim that waiters get basic training sessions in how to avoid eye contact with guests； such courses are available for prospective waiters in BeiJing too， I guess).
Diligence
“The Chinese are busy as bees.”
This is a common and most of the time certainly not false statement. But you should not believe that this is the case everywhere， and would apply to all Chinese. Especially in large companies， especially in companies of western background (i. e. branches of U.S. or European companies) you can certainly find a lot of very lazy staff， and I’ve seen this quite often.
(Southern) Chinese claim that Southern Chinese are the most industrious， especially in GuangDong (Canton)， the further you get to the north， the more sedate (to avoid saying “lazy”) were the Chinese people.
I had to fire some staff， too (or had to wave clear messages that preferably they sought another job and quitted on their own) who thought that in a German company， you might even in China work comfortably or sometimes for many days not at all.
And if the managers – often， alas， Western managers – indicate by their own behaviour that you can get away with a more relaxed posture yet climb up the career and salary scale while working till 17 o’clock meant an unbearable demand when beginning “already” at 9：30 – then many Chinese will also take this stance.
In this context I would like to repeat that there are Chinese companies that employ neither “overseas Chinese” (i. e. those who have several years studied or worked abroad)， nor those who have worked in Chinese branch plants or subsidiaries of Western companies， “for we cannot teach them any more how to work because they are spoiled.”
(Un)timeliness
“Chinese are never on time.”
Yes and no， this is again a generalising statement of the same kind as to claim that Germans were always on time. Indeed it is not the case. If you would like to describe the degree of the (average) timeliness in a ranking， you might do as follows， as perceived from my viewing point： Japanese > Swiss > Germans > English > Americans > Chinese > French > ...> Italians > Spaniards.
My football playing friends are largely on time， the games start on time. My business partners are all usually very punctual， of course there are delays， when a meeting before for some reason takes longer.
Trains are about as (un)punctual as in Germany， the timeliness of the Japanese train system being unmatched. Flights are about as unpunctual as in the U.S.， but the European air transport also tries to achieve this standard. In 2010， both airports of ShangHai have been world-record holders of unpunctuality， probably due to the world exhibition.
Chinese tally marks
Europeans and Northern Americans use tally marks arranged in blocks of five， for example， if a lorry is unloaded and you want to know how many bags of flour have arrived.
“The Chinese use for that the character 五， ‘wu’ = five”
I don’t doubt that this little item has been observed by the respective author correctly with someone. But the letter 五 for “five” has only 4 strokes and is written as follows： (characters not only have a clearly defined number of strokes， but also the order of strokes follows clear rules). There may still be Chinese who are counting flour or tea bags by such blocks of five. My research showed， however， that actually the character “zheng” (正， meaning “correct， proper”) is used for such purposes， and you write it like this： ..
Driving schools
“In China， practical driving lessons are held only on separate places， not in the real urban traffic.”
That may be the case in BeiJing， perhaps as well in ShangHai， but it is not so in ShenZhen. Although the first lessons are given on side streets or large parking lots， and the reverse parking is practised there as well， in ShenZhen the driving school cars take part in normal traffic， this being reason for impatient overtaking and honking.
Jogging， walking， fitness
“Chinese people do not believe in running for reasons of physical exercise， to walk and to subscribe to fitness， they want to relax in peaceful walking. Chinese people do not want to access some destinations much exhausted， they prefer to stroll.”
I do not doubt that there is this sort of Chinese people， and for lack of knowledge of representative studies I cannot argue whether the above statement is at least depicting the rule that allows exceptions. Perhaps the rule is again mostly applicable to BeiJing and ShangHai， but in no case may the sentence be absolutely true， at least not in ShenZhen.
If I jog， I meet mostly Chinese people (the proportion of jogging foreigners is much higher than that of foreigners among the population， perhaps at 5 % where I live， whereas far less than 0.5 % of the residents are foreigners)， not only joggers， but also fast walkers of all ages (I’m far from being the oldest).
Most obvious this is on the Big Southern Mountain， “da Nan Shan”， in the subdistrict of SheKou where I live. The hilltop can be accessed from two sides， it seems to be around 350 m high and in parts quite steep. The climb is achieved on a path that consists entirely of stairs. When I didn’t play football on Saturdays yet but (in addition to Sundays) on Wednesdays， I often assailed this slope in Saturday mornings or， if I enjoyed one of my all too rare days “off ”， during the week as well. Now I am doing it only about once a year.