Bow Don't Shake at the Shanghai Museum

Waking up at the hotel, I was really looking forward to my day at the Shanghai Museum.  I had booked a guide to pick me up and as I ate my typical, Chinese breakfast of steamy, sticky rice and fish and fragrant, green tea I wondered what my guide would be like.  I hoped he wouldn't be some boring, old guy with just a lot of dull museum facts, but someone my age that I could have a good laugh with.  I need not have worried, the smiling, young dude who picked me up on his little scooter and and whisked me off to the museum could not have been nicer.  When we got to the large, round museum that looks like an old, Chinese cooking pot, we saw dozens of tourists and their guides parking their scooters or jumping out of taxis for an informative day of sightseeing.  As we went through the doors we passed giant, stone lions with expressions so fierce I almost expected them to reach out and tear me to pieces!  Inside the main lobby I saw open floors with signs pointing to many hallways going this way and that like "Ceramics," "Paintings," and "Sculptures" with that echoey sound that you only hear in massive buildings.  My guide and I had a great day!  His English was really good and he pointed out cool facts like how China was the first country to invent ice-cream and that's why there are so many ice-cream shops in China.  We had such a good day and I was still chattering away as weaved in and out of rush hour traffic on his speedy scooter.                  
My guide pulled in front of my hotel and here is where I made my fatal mistake.  Instead of bowing down and thanking my host for the wonderful day, I excitedly thrust out my hand.  He looked at me like I was offering him a dead fish or something and the look of disgust on his face was like he was smelling a three week old dead fish!  Lucky for me the Chinese are so polite that my guide quickly composted himself, bowed deeply, turned and walked away.  I felt like I just wrecked our whole day!