Anyone for chicken feet?

Facebook memories today were of China and some of the meals that were served. They also reminded me of a scary situation I faced whilst teaching there:

“When in China remember tipping is an insult as it implies that you think someone is not being paid their true value - Remember this when you read this story of how I and workshop participants were held hostage:
I have just returned to Zurich at the end of a 7-day stay in Shanghai as a lecturer at an international workshop at the Jiao Tong University. The workshop was tremendous as were the participants and the hosts, however the whole event was marred by a totally disastrous Wendy Wu tour.
We organized the tour from Switzerland via the web with the price per participant of $25 for a 3-hour afternoon tour. We left the university at 2:00pm and visited the silk museum and the pearl exhibit near the river before a 1 hour shopping trip downtown or a "tea" ceremony. All the guide was interested in was getting participants to spend as much as possible to earn commission and the "tea" ceremony was just a tea selling exercise at over inflated prices. On getting back on the bus at 17:15 (the driver was late) the guide demanded $8 per participant for a tip for herself and the driver. Our hosts were shocked. We were held as hostages on the bus, which was locked by a very aggressive driver much to the consternation of the international participants and our hosts. Our hosts called the police and at 19:00 we were freed from the bus. However, another 5 hours were spent at the police station where we eventually were able to get back moneys paid for day tours that some participants had paid Wendy Wu for Saturday tours. We all had to get taxis back to the University hotel arriving there at 01:45am.
I feel so bad for our hosts at the University who spent the rest of the workshop apologising for something that was not of their responsibility.
Wendy Wu tips are not tips they are compulsory charges and if you do not pay them you could find your self in hostile and threatening situations - if we did not have our hosts with us I dread to think what would have happened. All Wendy Wu was interested in was money not the enjoyment and service of its clients - at one point before the police arrived the guide demanded another 30$ per participant because of the delay to the schedule because of our refusal to pay the tip.
My advice if you want a day trip in Shanghai is to use taxis - they are cheap, reliable and friendly and our tour by taxi would have been half the price charged by Wendy Wu!!!”