Regarding the seating arrangement at each table, some basic rules are the same with the arrangement of tables.
1. For example, the guest of honor (主(zhǔ)客(kè), 贵(guì)宾(bīn)) (if not the people with the highest social ranking, then is the eldest member of a family) will be seated facing the door of entry, which is directly opposite to the host. This is in accordance with the first and second rule of table arrangement.
2. The second most honored guest will be seated to the left of the guest of honor. And the third honored guest is to the right of the guest of honor. As traditional Chinese rules indicated, the left side is more important than the right side. But nowadays, especially in cross-cultural business context, to keep in harmony with the international practice, Chinese also regard the right side as higher-ranking one when arrange seating. So there’s actually no strict ranking of right-side versus left-side seats. It depends on which the host prefer, the traditional Chinese practice or the international practice.
3. Sometimes, if the host has doubts about the correct order of precedence for his guests, he will seat them on the basis of age.