“The Forbidden City is a Cultural and Historical Site. The Two Should Not Mix Together.”

For the past seven years, visitors to Beijing’s 587 year old Forbidden City have had the option of slurping a Grande Latte as they tramped through the historic complex of sprawling gardens and halls that takes up 178 acres at the heart of Beijing. That ended when Starbucks finally shut its store on July 13 after a storm of opposition from patriotic mainland Chinese.“Starbucks has good quality stuff, but it is still a symbol of America’s low-class food culture,” wrote CCTV on Jan. 12, 2007. “It’s maybe O.K. to have a Starbucks around the Forbidden City. But having one inside the City is inappropriate. This is not globalization, but an erosion of Chinese culture.” Not surprisingly, Starbucks still has big plans for China. Starbucks continues to think China will become their second-largest market outside of the U.S. passing Britain and Japan in importance within several years.

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