Originally Posted by
mosburger
My pet peeve in "local" Chinese hotels is that the staff don't bother to do the dishes. Just stand there bored in the morning while guests are busy cleaning their cups with tea water.
In family owned hotels this is mostly not the case as they keep a rather strict regime on their workers.
Actually, the tea water cleaning this is because in China you really don't want anything to do with the tap water, including having the dishes cleaned with it. People rinse with the tea water because it has been boiled, and they can be sure their eating utensils are therefore relatively clean. Even in a "family" place I wouldn't use the dishes without rinsing them.