The Service Landscape of McDonald's in China IntroductionThe service landscapes of McDonald's in China will be critically analyzed in this study. Although McDonald's takes local conditions into account in planning the service environment, there are still some problems in the design of the service environment, such as the use of music, the insufficiency of spatial layout design and interior decoration. However, to better satisfy customers, improving service design becomes an important task of McDonald's to maintain its development in China. BackgroundMcDonald's Corporation, an American corporation, is the world's largest foodservice retailer, with over 30,000 franchised restaurants in more than 100 countries (McDonald Cooperation, 2010). McDonald's entered the Chinese market in October 1990 and has become a popular restaurant that currently has 960 restaurants and over 60,000 employees in China (Liu, 2008). According to the service gap model (Zeithaml, 2009), existing problems in the servicescape which is the physical environment in which the service is provided (Bitner, 1992) will lead to provider gap 2 (the gap in service design and standards) in the service quality model gaps (see appendix one). In China, although McDonald's acts to a certain extent locally in building the restaurant service environment, there are still some problems in service design. However, after studying customers' discussions about McDonald's service environment, the existing problems in its service landscape include the deficiency of environmental conditions (such as inappropriate use of music), the insufficiency of spatial layout design ( such as the lake in the Salsa Self-Help pavilion), and the use of symbols and......center of the paper......psychology & Marketing. vol. 17(7):587–605Mcdonalds.com.2011[online].[Accessed March 27, 2011]. Available from: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/our_story/our_history.htmlMooij,M de.2004.Consumer behavior and culture: consequences for global marketing and advertising. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.Parasuranman, AZ, and Berry, LL 1991. "Refinement and Reevaluation of the SERVQUAL Scale." Journal of Retailing.67 (4), 420-450. Russell, J. A. 1980. 'A circumplex model of affect'. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.39, 1161-1178.Schimitt,B. 2003. Customer Experience Management, John Wiley and Sons: Hoboken, New JerseySherry, J.1998. Servicescapes: the concept of place in contemporary markets. NCT Business Books: Chicago, Illinois.Zeithaml,VA2009.Service Marketing: Integrating Customer Focus Across the Enterprise. Boston, London: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.