Business Chinese--About the Time

If you arrange to meet a Chinese customer at 10:00 am,when should you reach the appointed place?

At 9 '50, 10:00 or 10:05, which is better?


According to the Western habit, you will probably arrive on time or a bit later. However,
a Chinese will arrive on time or sometimes several minutes ahead of schedule When meeting an important person or keeping an important appointment to show respect to the other party. So be sure not to be late for a meeting with a Chinese, if you arrive several minutes earlier, the other party will be pleased. This means that you are honest and reliable.

However, there is such a popular saying in China:"Time is not valuable."
Why is that? Since the Chinese observe time,why dose time worthless?
In fact, however, you will find it contradictory if you analyze their attitude
towards time carefully. On the one hand,they observe time; while on the
other, they waste time.

The Westerners often waste materials but treasure people and time,
believing that as time is short for human life, it is of great importance;
while the Chinese waste people and time, but treasure materials, not
sparing to exchange more materials with time and life, and even striving
to leave rich materials for the later generations as the continuation of their
lives. However, with the deepening of the exchanges between China and
the Western countries, some foreign cultural concepts have been gradually
spread to China, influencing the ancient land. Now you will also often
hear the Chinese say "Time is money" or "Time is life".