A good friend of mine recently went back to China permanently after spending more than 4 years in the States. He told me some interesting (good or bad) experience in a bank. First, he was very impressed by the touch screen in the bank, which is good. As a side note, last summer when I visited the Bank of China in Pudong, I did not realize I need to get a ticket from the touch screen. In the States we have the red mechanical counter for the purpose. Initially I saw peopple who came later than me eventually jumped in front of me, so I complained. Then they told me the touch screen. I felt I came from a “3rd world” country or rural area. Back to the main story. My friend wanted to have his bank account renewed. And the cashier told him to wait. My friend waited almost 2 hours. As the bank is about to close, he went up to see the cashier again. The cashier told him she looked for him and called his name couple times. Dahn! Obvisouly my friend was “too nice” and waited “too patiently”.
I had similar experience in the motel check in counter. If I wait like in the States, no one will handle my question. The worst case I had is at Jiu Zhai Gou airport, the tour guides (who usually have dozens ID cards) cut in the line, and tried to get boarding pass for his/her clients.
Not surprisingly, wolfDancer, a Chinese American software developer, had similar culture shock. She wrote an article about this.