Shaking hands I found Americans love to shaking hands while greeting, especially with someone who first meet. In China, it's not a very common manner. It would be seen only in very formal business situations or meetings of the officials. Interestingly, high-ranking officials are much more likely to shake hands when greeting with others, even though not in very formal situations. I am not sure whether for them shaking hands is a sign of power or something else, but definitely, it contains more information than when Americans do so. Technically, this manner was transmitted from western countries. We didn't have this kind of manner until approximately one hundred years ago. So, culture is very interesting, when we absorbed some foreign culture, we mixed it with something indigenous. One same thing may have different meanings when the situations are different.