Cui Lintao (R), Communist Party Secretary of the Northwest Chinese city
of Xi'an, learns how to assemble a Big Mac hamburger at the new
McDonalds restaurant August 30, 2001. The restaurant, which formally
opens August 31, is the 377th to open in China but the first in the
relatively poor Northwest of the country. One of the main national
policies in China is to speed development in the Western regions but
until recently major multinationals have shied away.

RCS