I will be traveling to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai on business next month for the first time. I have heard that in some Asian countries tipping is not required in restaurants and even frowned upon. Could someone please give me the "rules" for restaurant and taxi tipping in the places that I will be visiting as I don't want to offend the locals.

I lived in Asia for 10 years. In many places in Asia (esp Hong Kong) the tip is automatically added to a restaurant bill, check the bill for a 10% charge at the end. Otherwise, tipping is absoutely welcome and is the practice. As for taxicabs, tipping is not that common, you can leave the change from a bill, but it is not customary to give a tip. <BR><BR>Hope this is helpful.

There are many countries in Asia where there is no tipping, Taiwan and mainland China amongst them. In Hong Kong tipping is limited to a token sum to taxi drivers and to restaurant staff (in better restaurants) on top of the service charge. Only give the spare change to the taxi driver if he hasn't driven like a maniac and has taken you straight to your destination.<BR><BR>There is no tipping in mainland China, either of restaurant staff, taxi drivers, or anyone else. In China you negotiate a price for the goods or services that you buy, or that price is posted (on meters and in menus for instance), and that's what you pay--nothing more. Some hotels still have signs discouraging foreign guests who don't know the ropes from giving tips. Staff who hint they want a tip may be fired if this is reported. <BR><BR>Restaurants inside major hotels may add a service charge, but it's rare outside them. Many smaller hotels list a service charge on their details, but do not in fact dare to charge it except on restaurant bills--there is no tradition of such charges in China, which are a recent Western import and to which there's fairly strong resistance. Middle- and up-market restaurants sometimes have a small cover charge (usually not more than around US$1) for chopsticks, paper tissues, etc.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

The last poster and I have a different view of how widespread the practice of tipping is in China and Taiwan. In any event, it will not offend anyone if you leave a tip, which I believe was the import of your question.

The above comments about Hong Kong seem right to me. I've never been to Taiwan so I can't comment on that.<BR><BR>I've been living in China for the past 4 years, and it's my experience that the only people who tip in China are foreigners who either:<BR><BR>* don't know the tipping customs <BR><BR>* do know but feel too guilty not to, or<BR><BR>* do know but want to tip anyway because of the relatively low income of the recipient. <BR><BR>Just this week I was discussing this with my Chinese colleagues, and they were laughing at the idea of tipping in a restaurant - it sounded very strange to them. <BR><BR>As strange as this idea may seem to us, to most Chinese people, tipping in a local restaurant or taxi is like offering a daily tip to your mailman or doctor. Probably appreciated by the recipient, but very, very odd.<BR><BR>The exception to this is tours; most foreigners tip tour guides and tour drivers (and are even encouraged to do so by the tour operators). <BR><BR>Also, in Shanghai at least, in upscale, Western restaurants, tipping is a bit more expected, primarily because they're frequented by Western expatriates who tip, so they've set up an expectation. Local Chinese still don't tip as a general rule (even in these types of reastaurants) as far as I know.

Thank you all for your very helpful replies. One more question. Do the same rules apply to tipping the bellman in hotels? I will be staying in a combination of Asian owned and American owned (chain) hotels if that makes a difference.

Whoever owns the hotels, if you're still in China, Chinese rules apply. It's the Sino-foreign joint-venture hotels which are likely to be hardest on those who solicit tips, and I've actually known cases where staff have been fired. In the Chinese ones, if a superior staff member sees a tip change hands he may just demand a cut.<BR><BR>My own remarks and Andrea's comprehensive observations above make it quite clear, I think, that there is no tipping--and bell boys are no exception. They're already better paid than most people anyway, and in carrying your bags, etc., they are just doing the job they are being paid for.<BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html