"It's a decent place, it's clean, they have the music," said Liu Suwen at Jigsaw International, a Shanghai-based market research firm, speaking of restaurants such as McDonald's and KFC. "There's the feel of a Western experience."
Health experts fear the concurrent arrival of another sort of Western phenomenon -- expanding waistlines. About 200 million Chinese are overweight and 60 million are considered obese, according to state press reports. Public health experts view the growing popularity of fast food as a primary contributor to rising rates of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Shoppers are drawn to a McDonald's in Shanghai, where the menu includes red-bean-paste ice cream sundaes.
(Peter S. Goodman -- The Washington Post)
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"For young people born in the 1970s and after, lifestyles are not as healthy as before," said Lin Xi, a nutrition expert at the China Academy of Sciences in Shanghai.
Strangely, the uptake of fast food is happening alongside a modern-day Chinese preoccupation with vanity and weight loss. Taxis and buses in seemingly every Chinese city are plastered with ads for slimming potions and appetite suppressants.
The same day ACNielsen issued a press release promoting China's growing stature in the Filet-O-Fish-eating, Pepsi-drinking cosmos, it issued another study asserting that roughly two-thirds of Chinese are swept away by the tide of losing weight, with 80 percent exercising regularly and three-quarters listing health as their primary concern.
But on Saturday, as tired weekend wanderers rested their feet in a jam-packed McDonald's in the center of the city, most dismissed health considerations.
"This is convenient and it tastes good," said Liu Jiahong, 24, partaking in an order of fries as she and a friend recovered from a plunge into the hordes at a department store next door. "I don't care whether it's healthy or not."
At McDonald's restaurants in China, the menu features most of the classics, but some items have been tailored to the local palate, such as red-bean-paste ice cream sundaes and pork burgers.
Price does not appear to be a major consideration for Chinese consumers of fast food. While McDonald's and KFC are not considered particularly expensive by most urban Chinese, they are substantially pricier than many alternatives. Within a three-minute walk of the McDonald's, where a large order of french fries costs more than $2.50, a plate of eight skillet-fried pork buns could be had for 25 cents.
But people said the certainty of a known menu was worth the premium. "If you go to one of these traditional Chinese restaurants, there are big differences between one and another, and you have to know where you are and what to order," said Qian Kun, 20, a college student who was trying a new McDonald's item released in China, the curry beef triangle -- spicy beef wrapped in dough -- and washing it down with a vanilla shake. "Here, there's a standard. A familiar taste. You always know what to expect."
Across the street at KFC, three girls fresh from school made a snack of burgers and soft ice cream cones, the spread underwritten by bi-monthly allowances from their parents.
"Chinese food, that's all I ever ate when I was growing up," said Wen Yannan, 13. "I want something different."
Special correspondent Jason Cai contributed to this report.
