KFC Will Open Its First Restaurant In Tibet Next Year

A little over a decade ago, KFC parent Yum Brands scrapped plans to open a KFC restaurant in Tibet amid economic challenges and opposition from the Dalai Lama, but now they're at it again, and the company announced plans to open its first-ever Tibet KFC in downtown Lhasa sometime next year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the restaurant will be opened by a franchisee, and it is expected that it will open in the Shenlishidai Square shopping mall in downtown Lhasa.

A manager at the mall reportedly said the KFC would be enormous and occupy two floors.

"Before KFC chose to enter Tibet, we already had some fast food restaurants such as Dicos," mall manager Chen Biao said in an interview with Xinhua. Dicos is a popular Chinese fried-chicken chain."The consumers in Tibet accept fried chicken and hamburgers well."

Yum Brands announced plans to open a restaurant in Tibet in 2004, but those were canceled. This will be the first KFC outpost in Tibet, and there will likely be more to follow.