Greetings in Chinese

Today I'm going to tell you about the way people say "Hello" in China. We all know that the most popular way is the phrase "你好“. It's neutral and can be said in different situations. However there is a believe that “你好” is not of Chinese origin and is correlated with the English "Hello" or "How are you". 
Besides ”你好“ there are some other ways to greet each other depending on the situation. Let's learn how we can do it.

1) If we talk to an older person or to our boss, instead of “你” we should say “您“.  And if we greet several people, we say “你们好”.
2) Depending on the time of the day we can also say “你早” or “早上好” (usually addressing to a person whom we know quite well).
3）If Chinese people (friends) are talking not to a foreigner but to a person whom they know very well or who is their friend and if they met just at the time for having breakfast (dinner, supper), they usually say something like ”吃了吗？“，“吃饭了吗？” which can be translated as "Did you have a meal?" It doesn't mean that they really want to know if you have already had dinner. The usual answers for the phrases can be: “刚吃完”，“还没有“, meaning "I have just had dinner" or "Not yet". 
4) In the evening you can often hear such phrases as “还没睡？” meaning "Not sleeping yet?"
5) Sometimes the greeting can sound like that of “去哪儿？” meaning "Where are you going?" The answer is normally as follows “有事”，“出去” ("I've some business" or "Just getting fresh air").

To sum up, if you don't know all these phrases, it's normal just to say “你好".