In America, I rarely went to McDonald’s. I hate onions, and McDonald’s puts onions on their hamburgers. True, I could tell them to hold the onions—the workers there speak English after all—but what was the point? I preferred Burger King and their flame-broiled burgers, which did not come swarmed with onions. At least the hamburgers did not. I could not vouch for the Whooper, which I never ordered.
For reasons I cannot explain, Nanning does not have Burger King. Hong Kong does, and so does the airport at Beijing. I have frequented both whenever I passed through, but Nanning seems to be limited to McDonald’s and KFC only when it comes to American fast-food chains. I am not sure if there is a contractual agreement between them and the Chinese government, but it is odd not to see competition.
Instead of seeing a McDonald’s beside a Burger King and across the street from a Wendy’s, as is often the case in New England, it is more likely to see a pair or even a trio of McDonald’s all within close proximity. The thinking, I suppose, is that there are so many citizens in Nanning—upwards of five million I am told—that there is more than enough business to go around. And they may be right because each McDonald’s does a hearty business.
McDonald’s is pricey by Chinese standards. An average meal might equal five servings of noodles, which alone would constitute a meal in itself, and which is probably more nutritional for 1/5 the price. It is the younger Chinese, the teenagers and those even younger who you are likely to see dragging their parents inside. You are also apt to see foreigners dining, since they often gather at McDonald’s for coffee, relaxation, and of course English conversation. Odd again that McDonald’s would be a cultural oasis for the expats abroad.
Remarkably, the food tastes the same, which is a credit to both the Chinese and the McDonald’s corporation, I suppose, since both sides must be adhering to whatever standards they both agreed upon.
In America, when I visited fast-food outlets, I usually hopped in my car and ordered through the drive-thru. The entire dining experience took me no more than 30 minutes, from sofa to car to restaurant back to kitchen and concluding in the washroom. Oh, what luxuries we take for granted! There is no such thing as a drive-thru in Nanning and for fast-food to be, well, fast.
When I first arrived in Nanning, I lived downtown, walking distance from three different McDonald restaurants. But once I landed my teaching assignment at the western end of the city, I was a bus ride away from the nearest Golden Arches. Given the local traffic, a bus ride—sometimes without the luxury of a passenger seat—could take close to an hour. Add a 10 minute walk from the departure point to the restaurant counter, a few minutes more wait in line, then the order, the food’s arrival, and finally the eating of the meal itself, which I liked to prolong, given the length of time it took to get there, and double the time for the return trip back home, meant that an excursion to McDonald’s might necessitate a 3 hour trip! Quite a bit of time to satisfy one’s craving for Western food.
Before departing, my practice is to bus my own table. That is not something the Chinese are used to. They leave the tray where it is and expect the employees to discard the debris and wipe the table clean. And the McDonald’s worker is all too willing to comply! Me, I try ever-so-hopefully to set an example, one Chinese citizen at a time.
