Fast Food Watch: Five Popular Food Franchises That Failed in Beijing

China is an important market for many American fast-food providers, but while KFC, McDonald's, Starbucks, and Subway are increasingly popular and have become a ubiquitous local sight, not every chain has struck gold in Beijing. Here's a look at tasty treats that weren't welcomed by Beijingers.

1. Dunkin' Donuts (pictured above)

The New England institution arrived in Beijing in 1997, but continually faced one problem it would never overcome: consumer education. At the time, drinking coffee wasn't popular in China, and parent company Allied Domecq placed many of the outlets right next to their other major chain, Baskin Robbins. Without telling Chinese consumers how, when, and with what doughnuts should be eaten, Beijingers never caught on to what they saw as an extraordinarily sweet dessert food. Within five years, the outlets had closed. Stores have begun to reappear in Shanghai, but haven't returned to our fair city yet.

2. A&W Root Beer

Not one of America's best-known brands, at least not abroad, A&W Restaurants made a go of it in the late 1990s, with primary locations  at the northeast corner of the Liangmaqiao intersection (across from the Westin Chaoyang) and near Xidan. Chinese customers seemed to like the root beer floats, although therein lay the chain's ultimate doom: instead of the traditional scoop of "hard" vanilla ice cream, local outlets used soft-serve ice cream. That, combined with some pretty gnarly hot dogs that were the main food offering, seemed to ensure that the Frosty Mug Taste would not last into the current millennium.

3. Auntie Anne's

This pretzel chain had a twisted time of it in Beijing. Auntie Anne's opened in 2008 and tried to make a go of it, but with problems that included dough shipments being impounded and being caught up in the melamine milk scandal, the remaining stores closed in 2012.

4. Nathan's Famous

The world's leading hot dog chain apparently wasn't famous enough for Beijing. Opening a number of outlets in what seemed to be strategic locations, including the MasterCard Center and Sanlitun Megabox cinema at Taikoo Li, Nathan's arrived in Beijing in September 2010. Despite some high-profile events that included the crowning of a Chinese champion hot dog eater, the company had folded up its tent and headed back to Coney Island by the end of 2012.

5. Carl's Jr.

This is the one we're sure will cause many readers to say "no way." Aside from this author having visited the site in 1993, there's other proof that a Carl's Jr. outlet once operated in Beijing. Having opened in 1992 at a location off Wangfujing, the California burger joint shared space with the earliest Beijing incarnation of Yoshinoya and two other fast-food concepts. By 1995 the experiment had ended, and while its Japanese beef-and-rice purveying neighbor went on to significant expansion, Carl's Jr. never served another hamburger in Beijing, although they have opened in Shanghai.

What fast food chain would you like to see open in Beijing? Let us know in the Comments section below.

Photos: the Beijinger, luckypines on Flickr, Wen-Szu Lin, LumDimSum, Radar Online