Although authorities have moved up the official start of heating season by two full days to November 13, that still leaves a few days before the furnaces finally start up.

According to a report in The People’s Daily, the cafeterias at IKEA’s Beijing locations, are filled with elderly residents enjoying the pleasures of central heating. An elderly woman named Li was quoted as saying “IKEA is the best place for elderly citizens in such cold weather,” adding she always comes to IKEA together with her friends to enjoy the free water and coffee as well as the heating.

A Beijing IKEA employee confirmed to the People’s Daily that they have welcomed a number of Beijing seniors looking for a reprieve from the cold. The employee said that since IKEA aims to offer comfortable living spaces, the store won’t intervene unless the elderly heat-seekers start to negatively impact the shopping experience of real customers.

Last month, IKEA took back years of hospitality it had shown toward elderly residents who used its Shanghai store as a swinging singles’ scene. Store staff cordoned off the cafeteria and enforced a “paying customers only” rule in order to weed out the freeloading seniors.

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The Mintel Report says 33 percent of Chinese consumers bought South Korean brands for their beauty needs, a market worth of 91 billion yuan ($13.7 billion) in 2015.

Vivienne Rudd, Director of Global Innovation and Market Researcher at Mintel, said the soft power influence of South Korean culture translates into big sales for the country’s beauty industry, which has a domestic market just a third the size of China’s.

“The success of South Korean brands has a lot to do with Chinese consumers copying the style of South Korean soap opera and music stars,” said Rudd. “They’ll even go so far as to get the particular products being used by these stars. The stores will try to get in the exact shades that South Korean actresses are using.”

“South Korean women are very much held up as the standard of beauty across Asia.”The demand for cosmetics is so big in China that beauty products have eclipsed groceries as the top-selling item in grocery stores. Meanwhile, male consumers of beauty products have become so common that male celebrities are often used to promote cosmetics.

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The e-commerce platform will launch at the end of August and is currently limited only to Shanghai. If successful, IKEA says it will expand service throughout the country, making it the first country in the Asia-Pacific region to have the service.

All IKEA products are available on the e-commerce platform save items like plants and food.

As popular as IKEA is in China, it is mainly limited to gigantic retail spaces in first and second-tier cities. IKEA has already begun branching out from this retail strategy by developing a pick-up and order point in Wenzhou that will be supplied by a neighboring store in Ningbo.

“This business model, with small investments, is suitable for smaller cities, where they don’t have physical stores. IKEA will launch more such pickup and order points in China,” said the company in a statement.

After a media backlash, IKEA finally recalled 1.7 million of its line of “MALM” dressers and chests in China this past spring after being associated with a number of fatalities abroad. Xinhua called IKEA’s resistance to the recall a “double standard”.

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Citing unidentified sources close to the matter, investors in Uber China will receive a 20 percent share in the new company. In return, Didi Chuxing is said to be making a $1 billion investment in Uber China at a $65 billion evaluation. Uber will operate its own app and services for the immediate future after the rumored deal. Both Uber and Didi Chuxing have not made any comment.

Last week, the Chinese government ended two years of legal uncertainty by finally legalizing ride-sharing in China. Cities have been told to “encourage, support and guide” the industry by central authorities.

In its report, Bloomberg also published a blog post written by Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

“As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned that being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart,” said Kalanick. “Uber and Didi Chuxing are investing billions of dollars in China and both companies have yet to turn a profit there. Getting to profitability is the only way to build a sustainable business that can best serve Chinese riders, drivers and cities over the long term.”

Uber has admitted to falling $1 billion in debt to support its China operations, while Didi Chuxing has raised $7.3 billion from investors over the last year.

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The expansion comes after ONE Championship secured an investment from Singapore-based investment company Temasek, rumored to be worth nearly a billion dollars. Ever since the announcement, ONE Championship has opened offices in Beijing and Shanghai, and is looking for a President to head up its China operations.

“It’s not so much the funds, although of course that’s helpful to accelerate the business,” company founder Chatri Sityodtong said of the Temasek investment. “It’s much more that they have a very wide ecosystem of investments across Asia, and we can tap into that.”

“We will be ramping it up in China. One Championship really is a global platform to showcase the various martial arts of all countries, and kung fu is huge in China but there has never been the right platform to show that.”

Chatri is mindful of what it takes for foreign businesses to succeed in the Chinese market.

“Every country has its own nuances, and has its own opportunities and challenges,” Chatri said. “A billion people is exciting, and a huge market, but at the same time we have to have relationships with government, with the business community, with the martial arts community, to make it work.”

The ONE Championship investment comes right on the heels of the high-profile $4 billion sale of competing MMA promoter Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).

After the UFC, ONE Championship is the second largest MMA organization in the world. ONE Championship has a broadcast reach of more than a billion homes across 118 countries, and counts global brands such as Disney and Under Armour as sponsors.

ONE Championship counts atomweight Angela Lee among its reigning champions. Lee signed a six-figure contract with ONE Championship this past May that has the budding face of Asian MMA earning more than UFC champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Invicta FC champion Cristiane Justino.

The ONE Championship will be hosting shows later this year in China that include the Cotai Arena, Macao on August 13 and in Chengdu on September 24.

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The subsidiary was criticized by the Bureau of Statistics for serious errors in its 2014 financial reports. Specifically, Apple China had incorrectly submitted information on value-added tax, staff salaries and annual commodity sales. “The error made in value-added tax could possibly lead to a case of tax evasion against Apple,” reported the National Business Daily.

Last year, the Ministry of Finance revealed Apple’s Chinese subsidiary had underpaid RMB 452 million ($71 million) in taxes in 2013. Although the taxes were eventually paid, Apple China was fined an additional RMB 65 million for being late.

The report also claimed the subsidiary under-reported RMB 8.8 billion in revenue, and RMB 3.4 billion in costs, while over-reporting RMB 5.4 billion in profits.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, a company can be listed as “seriously dishonest” in China if it fabricates census data, hides a large quantity of data in a report, or if it is found to be engaged in other serious illegal census activities.

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Called the “Angry Red” burger and the “Trouble-making Green” burger, the promotion uses the characters’ colors from the mobile app game. Taking the form of a spicy double-chicken patty burger, and a fried pork patty with steamed egg, the ingredients are no doubt inspired by the fowl and swine characters from the game.

Predictably, the reaction among foreigners to the Trouble-making Green Burger has been particularly harsh, calling it “strange-looking”. Chinese reaction has been much more positive though, and those who have eaten it have posted favorable reviews online calling it “delicious” and having an “exquisite taste”. In fact, the greatest criticism among Chinese consumers has been that the burger has a strong mustard taste as opposed to green tea.

The Angry Birds movie earned $30 million in its opening weekend, knocking off Captain America: Civil War to gain top spot at the Chinese box office.

In addition to hamburgers, the fast food giant is selling Angry Birds themed menu items such as the pink-colored “Stella” strawberry pie, “Hal” green tea ice cream, “Bomb” red pomegranate and citrus drinks, and “Chuck” chicken nuggets.

Several McDonald’s outlets in major cities throughout China have gone so far as to brand themselves as Angry Birds-themed restaurants including Angry Birds characters and motifs, and Angry Birds backdrops for patrons to pose for photographs. McDonald’s in Shenzhen and Shanghai will feature the “world’s largest Angry Birds game”, allowing diners to play on giant outdoor screens.

But McDonald’s is just the tip of the iceberg. In 2014, Rovio Entertainment announced plans to open an astounding nine Angry Birds theme parks in China with a local partner by 2018.

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Anyone old enough to remember what the letters “KFC” stands for will also remember the fast food franchise’s well-known slogan “finger lickin’ good”, which brilliantly explained the experience of eating its food in just three simple words.

Although KFC discarded its famous slogan back in 2011, the fried chicken chain is now doing a new promotion in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia that is banking that consumers haven’t forgotten it. KFC is debuting its own brand of edible, flavored nail polish that smells and tastes like the franchise’s signature fried chicken.

The edible nail polish is described as being made from natural ingredients and said to be ready for tasting within five minutes of application. The KFC nail polish comes in two flavors/colors: original recipe, and hot and spicy.

The promotion coincides with KFC’s 30th anniversary of doing business in the region. But the nail polish isn’t available for purchase just yet; the results of an online survey will determine which kind of edible nail polish will be sold to the public.

KFC has enjoyed tremendous success in mainland China, mainly because the franchise is willing to cater to local tastes by subverting its own menu. This means that although you can buy fried chicken at KFC China, certain items like the family-sized bucket isn’t as popular as it is the West. Instead, Chinese KFC patrons are more likely to purchase sandwiches, or bowls of congee for breakfast.

And so, without the cultural touchstone of eating chicken by hand or its “finger lickin’ good” slogan, the edible fried chicken-flavored nail polish promotion might come as a complete mystery to Chinese people.

One netizen reacted to the edible nail polish by saying, “This will make dogs chase me on the street,” while another flatly rejected the whole idea, saying, “This is something I completely don’t want. Goodbye.”

Another person simply didn’t understand the point of it, saying, “Can’t you just make chicken, and do it well?” And then there was a netizen who was trying to figure out the next logical step, asking “Does this mean there will also be hot pot-flavored perfume, BBQ-flavored lipstick, and braised chicken-flavored eyelashes?”

And then there are cultural differences to consider as well. Mainland Chinese don’t make a habit of licking their fingers during mealtimes, considering it to be an unhygienic practice.

KFC has taken a number of successful gambles to make it the leading fast food chain in China over the past few years. KFC China has offered black and pink sandwiches, become the first fast food outlet to operate in Tibet, and debut a digital concept store where a voice-activated AI robot takes your order.

Will the edible fried chicken-flavored nail polish be a big hit for KFC in China? Here’s Hong Kong starlet Myolie Wu suggesting that it will by sticking her fingers into her mouth for a group of photographers:

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Fast food franchise KFC has long relied upon its secret recipe of 11 herbs and spices for its success, but the restaurant is making a break from tradition with its new technological-driven concept store in Shanghai.

Located at the National Exhibition and Convention Center, the design of the concept restaurant is a collaboration between KFC and Baidu to provide customers with a fully-realized experience in today’s digital society.

Called “Original+” as a reference to the brand’s traditional recipe, the restaurant features a robot artificial intelligence called “Dumi” that serves customers by taking their orders through voice commands.

Dumi’s voice recognition is sophisticated enough to handle customers changing their orders and making substitutions by “learning” from its interactions, but its makers admit the robot has trouble distinguishing between certain dialects and accents.

For the time being, Dumi can’t understand orders made in English or in the local dialect, Shanghainese.

First debuting last year, Dumi is the culmination of ten years of research and development into artificial intelligence by Baidu. Dumi is said to appear soon in other real-world environments, although Baidu has not provided any specific details.

The Original+ KFC store also has other features that can cater to customers through modern technology.

Customers can pay for their purchases on their phone using mobile payment services such as Alipay, Tenpay, and Baidu Wallet. Furthermore, the concept store has a wireless charging station for mobile phones that also doubles as a music listening station which can be accessed through a QR code.

The Original+ concept store was kicked off April 25 with an appearance by Chinese popstar Lu Han touting the abilities of the Dumi artificial intelligence.

Other KFC stores are offering other technological features for their customers. In Shenzhen, the first of a number of planned “QQ” KFC stores allows customers to pay for their order using the popular text-messaging system.

McDonald’s has already unveiled its “Create Your Taste” line of restaurants in China that allow patrons to customize their own sandwich creations through touchscreen menus and pay for them using mobile payment systems, all while enjoying free WiFi and cellphone charging stations. Additionally, McDonald’s has debuted its “McDonald’s Next” line of restaurants in Hong Kong that feature modern designs with industrial and minimalist themes.

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Chen Deli, supervisor of food and beverages, said the meals offered at the park will reflect the nationality of their guests: about 70 percent are expected to be Chinese, 20 percent are expected to be from Southeast Asian countries, and 10 percent will come from North America and Europe.

The park will offer such “Disney-fied” foods as Mickey Mouse Roast Duck Pizza, Donald Duck Waffle Cake, and the Mickey Mouse Chocolate Tower, each prominently featuring its mascot through visual design. The park will also offer more traditionally Chinese cuisine, such as Mickey Mouse Braised Pork Knuckle in Dark Soy Sauce (seen above), Mickey Mouse Meat Mooncakes, and Minnie Mouse Red Bean Buns.

The resort’s 600 restaurants, which can each sit between 600-1,000 people, will offer other classic Chinese dishes, such as stir-fried beancurd in chili sauce (mapo tofu), Sichuan noodles in spicy sauce, prawn dumplings, flat noodles, shrimp and scrambled egg stir-fried rice, and red-cooked meat (pork braised in soy sauce).

Chen, previously of Hong Kong Disneyland, was unwavering in the mission of the theme park’s restaurants. “Respecting the tradition of Chinese cuisine is the first principle we uphold here at Shanghai Disneyland,” he said.

Dong Yan, executive chef at the resort, said that the preparation of the resort’s meals are methodical. “Every food that is prepared in our 3,000 square meter central kitchen has its ingredients acquired, washed, and cooked on the same day. Every dish served on our tables can be traced back to the farm from which it originated.”

Dong added that all vegetables will be washed by machines, and that manual washing would be forbidden in its kitchens. At the same time, pans would only be used to prepare one type of dish in order to maintain the unique taste of each style of food.

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