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, Yang and so on… there are many family names of course, but it seems that every fifth person shares the same surname. 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 can be very difficult to remember, it becomes quite difficult not to offend should you say the wrong name. 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.