China’s 1st Big Mac Attack--Diners Crave ‘Pork Buns’

Amid firecrackers, lion dances and crowd scenes usually found on the Chinese New Year, McDonald’s today opened its first restaurant in China.

A chain of 20 McDonald’s employees held back hundreds of eager customers who waited impatiently for their first Big Macs under the trademark golden arches in Shenzhen, a city across the border from Hong Kong.

The new restaurant, in a shopping mall, has a capacity for 500 people.

“Don’t push,” store manager Kenneth Lau shouted into a microphone as he stood on a table top in front of the cashiers’ post. “Line up. There’s enough food for everybody.”

“They’re a little like pork buns,” said David Cai, 26, of Beijing, an electronics company worker who ate a Big Mac, a large order of fries and a Coca-Cola. He was comparing the hamburger to a popular Chinese dish of steamed bread filled with pork.

“A Big Mac has meat and bread with it, too,” Cai explained. But he complained about the service, adding, “I like Kentucky Fried Chicken better.”

A Big Mac sold for the equivalent of $1.20 in a country with an average per capita income of $270.

The franchise has reached China relatively late. Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut opened stores in Beijing during the last decade.

“The lateness is accidental,” said Daniel Yat-chiu Ng, the chairman of the Shenzhen McDonald’s. “We don’t go into an area just to be first. We want to be sure that the restaurants can be successful.”

Ng said he negotiated for two years with government officials before he was allowed to establish the restaurant. Ng, an entrepreneur, also operates McDonald’s stores in Hong Kong.

He said he hoped at least 500 McDonald’s restaurants will open in China in the next 10 years.