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Starbucks closes controversial Forbidden City cafe
2007-07-14
Starbucks has closed a controversial coffee shop it had operated in Beijing's historic Forbidden City since 2000, Chinese media reported on Saturday. The cafe was closed Friday under a reorganisation of private businesses operating in the grounds of the ancient palace which was the former residence of the Ming and Qing emperors (14th-20th century), the Beijing News said. The managers of the palace, which attracted 8.76 million visitors last year, proposed that Starbucks could continue to operate within a cafe offering other brands but the US coffee shop chain declined, the newspaper said. "The company insisted it wanted to continue to have its own independent cafe," Li Wenru, vice curator of the Forbidden City, told the paper. Neither the management of the Forbidden City nor Starbucks could be contacted Saturday. The Starbucks cafe has been controversial since it opened in the palace regarded as one of the most important Chinese cultural heritage sites. To be more discrete, Starbucks had even removed its distinctive sign two years ago from the cafe, which was one of the smallest in its Chinese network of more than 190 establishments in more than a dozen cities. Last January, famous Chinese television presenter Rui Chenggang called on Starbucks to leave the Forbidden City, saying that the cafe undermined the "solemnity of the Forbidden City and (trampled on) Chinese culture." Thousands of Internet users supported his view, which sparked extensive coverage in the official press.
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