Starbucks shop opens at Great Wall
You know, I occasionally enjoy a coffee frapp, but I don't believe I would want to drink it at the Great Wall of China. Do they have garbage bins for all of the Starbucks waste on the Great Wall? I wonder if astronauts can also see the world's 7788 Starbucks outlets from space? I was shocked to discover that as of today, there are 79 Starbucks stores within a 5 mile radius of my house in Vancouver!
From CNN
Tuesday, September 20, 2005 Posted: 0955 GMT (1755 HKT)
BEIJING, China (AP) -- Five years after Starbucks infiltrated China's historic Forbidden City, the company is making a caffeinated assault on another centuries' old landmark: the Great Wall.
The Seattle-based coffee chain said in a statement Tuesday it had opened a store at Badaling, a heavily touristed section of the wall about 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Beijing.
Starbucks, which first opened in China in 1999, has 140 outlets in China, compared with almost 6,000 stores in the United States.
The firm drew controversy in 2000 when it opened a store within the gates of the imperial-era Forbidden City, a massive complex of palaces and courtyards where China's emperors once lived.
Some Chinese complained it was unseemly to have such an instantly recognizable symbol of American consumerism inside a national monument.
posted by Sarah @ 2:33 am
6 comments
6 Comments:
The first time I saw two starbucks at the same intersection kitty-corner from each other was when I was visiting Carolyn in Vancouver. All I could think was.... why?
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There's a funny line in Best in Show about that…
We met at Starbucks. Not at the same Starbucks. We saw each other at different Starbucks across the street from each other
As a person who has been to both the Forbidden City and the Great Wall at
Badaling (or Badabing as we whimsically refer to it), I will say that I was HORRIFIED at the presence of Starbucks at these historic sites. Mao would surely turn in his mausoleum if he knew that blatant capitalism had infiltrated his country to the massive extent that it has. I'm not just talking about Starbucks now, but Coca Cola, KFC, McDonalds, Cadbury... you name it. It certainly goes against every principal he stood for, and that his
people (knowingly or unknowingly) died en masse marching for. Who says China is a communist country???.
That said, when I was in Beijing in the height of the Chinese summer, despite being HORRIFIED at the sight of a Starbucks in the Forbidden City, I went against all of my principals and went inside, purchased a refreshing beverage and sat down for a while. Why, you may ask? Simple: air-conditioning. The sight of Starbucks after a morning which began in a stinking hot taxi and was followed by a good few hours of traipsing around in the sweltering heat with my t-shirt plastered to my back and sweat dripping down my legs evoked in me the type of joy experienced only by a thirsty person seeing an oasis rise from the desert floor. It was divine. That kind of luxury, however blatantly capitalist, is undoubtedly worth hurling your horror into the wind and turning in your mausoleum for.
P.S. In answer to your question: Do they have garbage bins for all of the Starbucks waste on the Great Wall? No, the Great Wall has become the garbage bin. It is littered with juice boxes, old plastic ponchos, and other bits of crap. Rubbish is simply thrown over the edge if there is nowhere else to put it. It is shameful that China does not take care of it's treasures, but this seems a throwback from the cultural revolution. The Great Wall currently hides under a mist of pollution that is slowly becoming the blanket under
which all of China and Hong Kong sleeps. As an example, I could not see Hong Kong harbour from my bedroom window this morning, despite the fact that I live on the 33rd floor of a building less that 500 meters from the water. On a clear day (usually a Sunday when the factories over in China close down for the day) we can see well beyond the harbour to the far reaches of the Hong Kong New Territories. This is the price of gaining an industrialized nation with the capacity to compete with the US as the new Superpower. I realize that this probably has little to do with Starbucks per se, but in the words of Dennis DeNuto "its all part of it".
As an aside, my boyfriend Mike's mother visited China in June and bought Star Wars 1-3 on DVD for Mike (I don't think she realized that Star Wars 3 is not out on DVD yet and thus is a bootleg). We watched it and it's in English with subtitles. There's also the option of having English subtitles. However, the English subtitles are from a different movie! I think they are from "The Piano". Watching the first scene in which Annakin and Obi Wan are zooming around in their space ships fighting while saying things like "I have been mute since I was five years old. No-one knows why" is HILARIOUS!
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