Having not been to Guangxi for so long I had quite literally forgotten about Guilin knock off fast food. Back in the day this was legitimately a thing, with Yulin Airport and train station, as well as Yangshuo train station all having more than one.
So, what is a Chinese knock off fast food restaurant? Ir is basically a western style burger, ir fried chicken joint made to look like a franchise, but only in one, or two places. They are characterized by having a very eclectic menu full of everything “western” from pizza to fries and burgers, BUT they are almost always out of stock and the quality is bad.
In this instance I am not talking about Dicos, or even Wallace.
Why are there so many knock off restaurants in Guangxi?
Essentially these were underdeveloped towns, which meant McDonalds, KFC and even Dicos did not come here initially, but foreigners did. This meant some smart people did some socialism with Chinese characteristics and made knock off fast food restaurants.
They were also smart when they did this by placing themselves in airports, as well as train stations and then not moving an inch when the big boys arrived. I am sure this comes with a whole heap of corruption too, I mean who liked competition.
Amazingly I have also seen this phenomenon at even Guangzhou International Airport in Guangdong.
Da Bao Dang Ji at Guilin Railway Station
And the Guilin knock off restaurant that set this all off was named Da Bao Dong Ji and was located at proven piece of real estate at Guilin Train Station.
Said real estate ensured that it was bust in spite of two very glaringly obvious facts, firstly the food was god awful, but secondly there was even real McDonalds downstairs – ironically much worse places.
So, lets take about the Da Bao Dang Ji menu. I’ll begin by translating part and that is Da Bao which means takeaway, alas the rest I don not know..
The menu here is huge, but as expected most is not available. Here is another point where they did not take the notes from The Founder. Keep it simple.
The burgers at these places are also always the same on that they are drier than Gandhis flip flop. And the fried chicken? Well this is no KFC. That they do not have fountain cola only adds insult to injury in my mind.
One thing they do also have in common is that they all sell whole fried greasy chickens for cheaper than is really humanly possible. This truly worries me with regards to how they are raised, killed and processed. China after all is the place where oil is garnered from sewage and soneone managed to invent fake salt…..
In summary? This is no communist McDonalds.