Most Westerners love Chinese food, but after a certain number of months of subsisting on white rice and popular Chinese dishes, everyone starts craving some variety and a hit of home. Fortunately, fast food outlets, Western-style; have sprung up all over Beijing in the past few years, as they have done in most other large Chinese cities.
Most Westerners love Chinese food, but after a certain number of months of subsisting on white rice and popular Chinese dishes, everyone starts craving some variety and a hit of home. Fortunately,
fast food outlets, Western-style; have sprung up all over
Beijing in the past few years, as they have done in most other large Chinese cities.
The first thing about fast food in China is that it's an upscale event, a fashionable way to spend the evening, and depending where you go, a good deal more expensive than "real" restaurants -- quite different in this regard from fast food in America, where it was invented for the express purpose of being casual, convenient, and cheap.
McDonald's is the oldest and most widely established Western fast-food franchise in China and you will see Beijing families by the score eating exotic hamburgers and taking photographs of each other in front of that red-headed clown, Ronald.
The second most popular franchise in Beijing is KFC. The Colonel with his white goatee and spectacles can be found looking out upon Chinese streets in dozens of locations. All the Western-style fast food outlets in Beijing pride themselves on absolutely un-Chinese cleanliness, and it is generally impossible to walk up a flight of stairs without tripping over an employee with a mop.
Pizza Hut has many locations in Beijing, and this is the most upscale of all the local fast food outlets -- it is far beyond the budget of most Chinese families. The food there is well received by both Chinese and the westerners.
Fast food outlets seem to be opening as quickly as you can blink in Beijing. If you feel like listening to country music, you can have BBQ ribs and rotisserie chicken at one of the several Kenny Rogers about town. The side dishes are especially good there -- baked beans, macaroni salad, corn-on-the-cob, and many more. Dunkin' Donuts has four locations at the moment, but there are plans for several more. Or if you would rather have a mug of root beer, there is an A & W in the Haidian District (opposite People's University), with three more restaurants in the works.
So no one need starve in Beijing. If you are bored for the traditional Chinese food, you can go these places and find a taste of your home.