I did a three week tour of China a few years ago, and the service in restaurants everywhere was like this. I must admit that after three weeks of it, I snapped and told a waitress who attempted to refill my glass from my can after I took one sip that I could manage that myself, thankyou. They also did things like adjust my cutlery back to straight if I bumped it, and put bowls back in a symmetrical pattern if we passed them around during a buffet.
They also had greeters standing at the door of every restaurant just saying hello as you walked in. Not so strange? Often there were up to 6 greeters. 6!
I found it very stifling, but perhaps that's just normal for them, and that's what you're seeing.
They also had some odd ideas about drinks. We went to a bar one night and DH ordered a beer, which was fine, and I asked for a vodka and orange juice. No, they don't serve single shots of spirits. You buy a whole bottle and drink some that night, then you leave it there with your name on it and drink some more tomorrow night.
Plus, no-where we went had cold drinks. It was winter when we were ther, so it was cold outside, so obviously you should be drinking hot drinks. Our cans of Coke were always served out of fridges that weren't turned on, so were always room temp, and on a couple of occasions, they actually warmed them. Warm Coke, not yummy.
Although since we were in their country, perhaps we were the strange ones!
