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Shoes off at the door
Shoes come off inside a Chinese home, without exception and without anyone having to ask. A rack sits by the door and guests are handed slippers kept for the purpose, so arriving in socks with a hole is its own small disaster. The reasoning is plain enough — floors are lived on, children sit on them, and outdoor dust in a northern city is real. Expect to be fed, too: a guest leaving hungry reflects on the host, which is why food is offered repeatedly and refusing once is merely the first move.