For the common Chinese it means to get together with your family and loved once to celebrate.
Since a lot of people that I met come from all over China it is for some difficult or expensive to go home for just 3 days. So instead of celebrating spring festival with their family it is quite common to celebrate it with friends instead.NPU provided all international students with a traditional cake called "mooncake" which people traditionally eat with family or friends under the moon during spring festival.
For us these three days just meant relaxing.
To partipate our Chinese friends in their celebration we were invited to join them to eat at a steak house.
We ordered our steaks and drinks and had some friendly conversations. Things seemed to be going quite smooth up till the point that the food was served out. One of the chefs that brought the food lost his balance a bit which made a fork full of steak sauce fall off the plate over my pants and Gaby's dress.The chef walked away without a word. I was quite upset with this and I demanded an excuse, our Chinese friends told me that this sometimes happens and that it is okay. I gave them one good argument that I pay the restaurant to enjoy their food not to get my clothes ruined. After a closer look a Gaby's dress which was badly covered with sauce she seemed to catch the spirit. The waiter was called for and a free melon was offered and an excuses given. This was enough for me however my other Chinese friend Linc (Gaby's colleague) was not satisfied yet and asked the waiter back.
After a few words he told us that we will get a 20% discount on everything we ordered. I was amazed. The same people that at first accepted what happened turned into hardcore negotiators the moment they realized that they were being deputized.
Linc actually thanked me afterwards for teaching him this lesson. It was my pleasure.
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