Timeline of quickservice restaurants
1987
• KFC opens its first store on the Chinese mainland in Qianmen, Beijing. • 1989
• KFC unveils a store in Dongfeng Hotel along the Bund. The hotel is today known as the Waldorf Astoria Shanghai. 1990
• Pizza Hut opens its first store in Dongzhimen, Beijing.
• McDonald’s opens its first store on the Chinese mainland in Dongmen area, Shenzhen, Guangdong province. 1991
• China’s first homegrown fast food chain Ronghua Chicken is founded in Shanghai with the slogan “Where there is KFC, there is Ronghua Chicken”. 1994
• Dico’s, which is China’s largest fast food chain by number of outlets today, opens in Chengdu, Sichuan province. 1995
• Chinese-style fast food chain Red Sorghum Mutton Noodle is established in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province. Despite its local offerings, the founder never denied that his business plan as well as store decor were “borrowed” from McDonald’s. He also said that his vision was to outpace McDonald’s by having 20,000 stores within five years.
• Subway’s first store opens in Beijing Jiaotong University. 1996
• China’s largest fast food chain by revenue Ajisen Ramen is established in Shanghai. 2004
• KFC opens its 1,000th store in China. 2005
• Burger King unveils its first store in Shanghai.
• KFC is hit by a food safety problem after Sudan 1, a type of carcinogenic food dye, is discovered in its chicken wings.
• Yum China launches its own Chinese fast food chain, East Dawning, in Shanghai. 2008
• KFC starts to offer Chinese dishes such as fried dough during breakfast hours and a variety of rice staples. McDonald’s replaces beef with chicken for its under-5yuan offerings. 2014
• Shanghai Husi, a unit of US-based OSI Group and supplier of both KFC and McDonald’s in China, is accused of selling products tainted by rotten meat. This is one of the most significant food safety incidents in the industry to date. 2015
• Yum China announces that it will split from its parent company and become a separate publicly traded entity. 2017
• McDonald’s sells an 80 percent stake of its China business, valued at up to $2.08 billion, to a group that includes Citic Ltd, a Chinese Stateowned company.