A group of Chinese business leaders arrived in Dayton, Ohio to meet with a local company about the possibility of collaborating on a joint project to produce windshields for auto manufacturers. They arrived on a Thursday evening and spent the night in a local hotel. The Friday morning meeting was to begin at 9 a.m. The local company employees had arrived early to set up for the meeting and had ordered a nice breakfast and tea for their guests. The local company was surprised when their guests had not arrived at 9 a.m. They waited for approximately thirty minutes and called the hotel. No one responded to the messages. At approximately, 10:30 a.m. the Chinese delegation arrived at the office for the meeting. By this time, the food was cold, and the Dayton local business leaders were a little upset. The local business leaders immediately start discussing business and they are surprised again when the Chinese visitors sit down to drink tea and eat breakfast without discussing business. Finally, around 11 a.m. the Chinese visitors begin to discuss business. At the end of the day, the local Dayton business leaders felt that perhaps the Chinese delegation were not that interested in working with them since they arrived so late and started the meeting almost two hours past the scheduled time. By the way, the film American Factory (Oscar winner) was filmed Dayton, Ohio and features a Chinese Company doing business in Dayton. I recommend watching it. It is a very good film portraying cultural differences in business practices.