Why? Because this is China.

I went out to lunch with a group of moms - some friends, some new people. We had chosen a Chinese food place over in Puxi, a beautiful old building with a nice grass courtyard. There were 7 of us and we were seated at a round table that really was meant for 4 people. When eating Chinese food, the dishes are shared by everyone, but there really wasn't any room at the table for that many dishes. So we asked to move - when I say "we" I meant "the Chinese speakers" asked to move (in Chinese) and we were told "no" by our waiter. No explanation.

We pointed to some square tables and suggested that we put 2 together to make a table big enough for 7 with room for plates and dishes. Again, "no" was the answer and explanation. After much debate between my friends and the waiter, another waitress came over explaining that manager was not there today and couldn't be consulted as to whether we could move those tables together and so we couldn't move them as it would change the look of the restaurant. (the tables were not reserved and the restaurant was much closer to empty than full) We finally gave up the debate and resolved to just deal with the small table.

After a few minutes though, the staff came with with a bigger round table and proceeded to replace a small table next to us with the bigger table and then reset all the dishes and move us over to the new bigger table. All of us were astonished at this. It was nice to have a bigger table, but wasn't it so much more work to go outside and get a new table and put it up and take away old table and reset table than just letting us switch tables that were already there and available? It just doesn't make sense. And the Chinese speakers who were with us could not understand it either. But at least the staff did something.