McDonald's, Beijing

Are you people insane? You are writing a tip on eating food at McDonalds. In China. Sure, all us Laowai go there from time to time, but you are actually suggesting it??!

I can understand that you get sick of Chinese food and crave a burger, but there are sooo many great locally owned places here. Why the hell would you actually choose mcshite???

There is a reason for going to McDonald's other than just missing American food. And that is,
trying the regional dish. In Japan, you can get a kind of potato/bacon pie. In the US, you can
get the apple pie or cherry pie (the apple pie seems to be universally offered or at least it is so at every McDonald's I've been to). In the case of China, it looks like it's the Taro-pie. It's a light purple color inside and it's actually quite good.

Favorite Dish: I wasn't going for my favorite on this day... but, if I had been it would have been a sausage
egg-McMuffin.

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Well, this is not really a 'Must see', as it no longer exists. This is the first McDonald's, that was built in Beijings Wangfujing Road. It was pulled down, when Wangfujing was turned into a modern shopping mall.

It definitely had the best and cheapest coffee in Beijing.There are now many McDs in Beijing, still the best coffee!!!!

The second pic is of the first menu of the first McDonald's in Beijing! I just had to keep it as a souvenir! When the first McD was opened in Bejing in 1991 it was a mayor attraction for the Chinese tourists coming to Beijing.

An overview of American Cuisine gives Frommer's:
"American fast-food outlets are ubiquitous. KFC, the most popular among locals, opened its 70th branch in the city in 2001 and has more than 80 now. McDonald's is a close second, with around 60. Subway and even A&W are also in the mix. For sandwiches, there are several other choices: Schlotsky's Delis (in the Oriental Plaza and China World Trade Center), the highly recommended Super 24 (halfway up Sanlitun bar street), and Sammie's next to the SilkStreet Market.

Among sit-down options are Pizza Hut, T.G.I. Friday's, Henry J. Bean's (in the China World complex), the American-owned Outback Steakhouse, and the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe."

Although McDonald's is now all over China, nothing beats the first.

Favorite Dish: What I like most is, they serve my favorite sausage mcmuffin all day through. (Well, you see, in the Philippines, it is available only at breakfast time)

If you want to give a break to chinese food, you can always go back to the old and known McDonald's.

Favorite Dish: Ask for the #1 Menu. It is always prepared for you, so you get at least a just-made sandwich.

Due to the chinese preference for chicken, it is quite probable that you get to wait a few minutes to get any not-like-chicken-meat sandwich.

Call me a food snob if you want but if there's one thing I hate it's McDonalds, KFC and the rest. Not only is the food totally bland and unhealthy, but the restaurants are soulless, homogenous, plastic atrocities that are the same whether you're in America, Africa or Asia. So I was deeply shocked to see just how many of them (real and imitation) there are in Beijing. After all, when you've got one of the greatest cuisines in the world why would you want to eat a Big Mac!! Well, everybody's got their own tastes I suppose and if you're desperate for tasteless, plastic food in artificial, characterless surroundings then don't worry, you can have your fix quite easily in Beijing. There's even a Starbucks inside the Forbidden City! Sacrilege!! Now have a nice day :)

If we did not find McDonalds, I would stayed hungry!

Favorite Dish: Dobble Big Mac

You can always count on McDonalds for having clean toilets.

And you know a city has arrived when there's a McDonalds on just about every major street corner.