Please Go to Screen 1... and WAIT YOUR TURN Like Everybody Else!

The McDonald's restaurant at Causeway Bay in Hong Kong is so popular, you have to take a number AND wait in a gigantic line.

Waiting in line at this particular super sized McDonald's in Hong Kong is a bit of a chore (especially during the busiest times on a weekend), but the staff was fast, friendly and very efficient.  The organization system of where to order and pick up food is actually pretty decent, but on the day that my wife and I visited, many of the customers seemed to be rather confused as to how and where to properly and/or politely wait in line.  Not a McDonald's corporation problem, per say, in my opinion.  It's more of a 'the locals don't quite yet know how to queue properly' problem, but it's still developing, crowd challenged Asia, after all.

Specifically, a local Asian man complained to me (while we were both waiting for our orders) that the "old system was much better."  He called the new queue system an "American way" that "sucks," and was rather disgruntled and quite rude in telling me just exactly that.  I countered that I don't think that it's about RACE at all.  Or nationality.  Or traditional Chinese national pride either, for that matter.  I told him that I think the system could be even MORE organized, but he didn't seem to like that, and basically shut me off when I wouldn't agree that the American way "sucks."  And yet he was the one who started to complain to me (a total stranger), FIRST.

"Racist?"  Probably not.  Just another rude dude who can speak just enough English to put his foot in his whiny mouth.  And I unfortunately know enough people like that from back home, actually!  And I guess I still, after all my years living in Asia, look just enough like a typical white American to be a prime target for abuse.  Oh well.  So be it, but I don't own the McDonald's corporation, I didn't overpopulate China (or Asia in general), and I didn't visit Hong Kong just so I could impose my white imperialistic rule on the otherwise happy people of Asia.  Hmm.  I guess I look friendly enough to complain to about my country though, eh?

Blame it all on the McDonald's Corporation?  Blame it all on America?  Think again.  As IF!  I was in a former British Crown Colony, just trying to get a meal, thank you very much!  Blame it all on the British?  Uh... don't think so.  The Hong Kong locals (and increasingly the Beijing government) have been calling the shots since... oh... way back in 1997, the last time I checked.  Either way, it's not necessarily my problem if people around the world have to wait in line for American style fast food, is it?  And seriously, I AM friendly, but here's the deal: I won't dis your country if you can be polite about mine.

Enough said.

All in all though, despite that relatively negative experience with one particularly grumpy local, I really enjoyed my visit to that particular McDonald's.  And really, Hong Kong surprised me by how polite and helpful most local Chinese actually were (especially when they found out I can speak Mandarin - which opens up a totally new level of experience anywhere one might go in the Chinese​ speaking world, believe me).  I was actually expecting much worse behavior from the newly arrived Mainlanders, but then my Korean wife and I were only there for a couple of days.

I'd still rate that particular McDonald's a full five stars though.  It was relatively clean and well managed, after all - for a McDonald's in Asia, where standards of order and cleanliness may not always be what most Westerners have come to expect, given the current state of advancement of our own restaurant industry.  All in all, it was yet another fascinating and highly educational visit to a McDonald's restaurant in China; a country that is obviously (and painfully so) still undergoing more than perhaps its fair share of good old fashioned growing pains.

20150426 - Microcosm — in Hong Kong

20150426 - On the Menu at McDonald's — in Hong Kong

20150426 - Fashion!

Rude, Selfish, and Just Plain Inconsiderate

The rude, inconsiderate girl across the hall who always leaves her trash outside her door just had food ordered to be delivered at 1:20 am in the morning! Naturally, the Korean delivery guy was a real noisy, passive aggressive butt hole, too.

Asked him politely if he'd please be quiet, but he of course just kept rattling on, going to the wrong doors, rapping away in the middle of the night, and loud talking until he finally got his money from the irresponsible girl who apparently thinks it's okay to wake everybody up and disturb the peace.

And no, reporting this actual, real time event (that's actually not all that atypical in "modern," overcrowded, neon scarred Asia), does not make me or anyone else who has standards for human behavior a "racist." In America, we are trained (brainwashed maybe) to think that everything is about "race" (and probably because our country is such a diverse melting pot), but sometimes, it's just about people being rude, inconsiderate and selfish.

In fact, if you really, genuinely believe that there is only one race, and that we're all equal, you're probably actually an excessively politically correct, grandstanding, race mongering jerk if you think that all human beings don't have to sleep at night, regardless of CULTure.