January 24, 2007

Starbucks Forbidden from the Forbidden City?

A bit of controversy is brewing (sorry – had to) over a small Starbucks kiosk that is inside the Forbidden City, the Chinese Imperial Palace in the middle of Beijing. The controversy over the western brand having the outlet in the imperial city was apparently started by a blogger who was stunned to find the kiosk, and was put out over the apparent lack of respect for the grounds. (The back story here is also that the blogger published the article, and then proceeded to get over a half a million hits on his post, which was then picked up by Chinese news outlets.)

I went to the Forbidden City a few years ago, and was stunned with the beauty of the place as I walked around getting a personal tour from Rodger Moore, of James Bond fame, who narrates on the little tape recording. You certainly get an awesome understanding of how beautiful this place was in its time. I guess I am more shocked that any kiosk would be allowed in there; but hey it’s not my call.