Mr. Lee () is a popular fast-food chain in mainland China, specializing in
beef noodle soup
Beef noodle soup is a noodle soup made of stewed or braised beef, beef broth, vegetables and noodles. It exists in various forms throughout East and Southeast Asia.
One of the oldest beef noodle soups is the Lanzhou lamian (兰州拉面) or L ...
and other Chinese-style fast food. It is headquartered in
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
. The chain was formerly called California Beef Noodle King U.S.A. ().
The first franchise was opened in Beijing in 1988 by a Californian
Chinese-American
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from m ...
, Li Beiqi (), also known as "Mr. Lee". Li's face can be seen as part of the company logo, in a style similar to
KFC's
Colonel Sanders
Colonel Harland David Sanders (September 9, 1890
December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (also known as KFC) and later acting as the company's brand amba ...
logo. Today, there are several hundred franchises are present in many major Chinese cities. Notable locations include
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
,
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
,
Tianjin
Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...
,
Harbin
Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest c ...
,
Changchun
Changchun (, ; ), also romanized as Ch'angch'un, is the capital and largest city of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China. Lying in the center of the Songliao Plain, Changchun is administered as a , comprising 7 districts, 1 county and 3 ...
,
Qingdao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
and
Shenyang
Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...
. Mr. Lee competes with foreign franchises such as
KFC and
McDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
with lower prices and a greater appeal towards Chinese tastes.
The California Chicken ingredients are all from within China and have nothing to do with California.
Expansion
From June 2016, Mr. Lee started opening franchises in
Australia, with the first restaurant in
Australia being in
Burwood.
References
External links
*
{{coord missing, Beijing
Restaurants in Beijing
Fast-food chains of China
Noodle restaurants