Surnames
You may arrive, and be met by a Mr Zhang, who will pass you onto a Mr Shang, who will introduce you to Ms Wang, then you might meet another Zhang, Chang, Wang and so on… there are many family names of course, but it seems that every fifth person shares the same surname (albeit with regional variations).
Fei and Fu and Zhou and Hu obviously all sound different, but it’s easy to get confused between the many similar sounding names. Then, once their full name is given, which is quite easy to remember as most names are either only two or three characters long, you'll make good friends. Just a sidenote to say that sometimes Chinese will challenge you to remember their name if you haven't met for some time. So, do try to remember it if you can! But they won't be insulted if you don't. It's more like a bit of fun.
If in doubt, just try to remember them as a Mr or Ms (seldom Mrs) Wang, Zhang, Yang, etc, rather than their full name. It’ll get far too confusing if you meet several Chinese friends and you try to remember everyone’s full name!
Also, many Chinese now use an English name, which certainly helps things. A good way is "Jerry Wang" - best of both worlds.
