# The Business of Burgers in Beijing: What Fast Food Festivals Reveal About China's Economy

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/the-business-of-burgers-in-beijing-what-fast-food-festivals-reveal-about-china-s-economy
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/the-business-of-burgers-in-beijing-what-fast-food-festivals-reveal-about-china-s-economy.md
Podcast: [Barbarians at the Gate](https://stenobird.com/podcast/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733)
Published: 2026-04-21T08:12:29+00:00
Episode link: https://blubrry.com/barbarians/153825235/the-business-of-burgers-in-beijing-what-fast-food-festivals-reveal-about-chinas-economy/
Audio file: https://media.blubrry.com/barbarians/content.blubrry.com/barbarians/BATG-2026-04-21-116.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/barbarians-at-the-gate-434733/episodes/the-business-of-burgers-in-beijing-what-fast-food-festivals-reveal-about-china-s-economy
Duration seconds: 2002

## Resource

Mike Wester launched the first Burger Fest in Beijing 13 years ago as a scrappy response to the collapse of print ad revenue. Today, burger festivals run in third-tier cities across China, subsidized by local governments trying to drive foot traffic into half-empty malls. Hefei alone has four a year. In this episode, Jeremiah talks with Mike Wester, co-founder of True Run Media and publisher of the Beijinger, about how burgers became one of China's fastest-growing new cuisines, what the food festival boom reveals about Chinese commercial real estate, and why a generation raised on McDonald's is now opening artisanal burger shops in cities that didn't have a KFC a decade ago. They cover the social-media arms race, producing photogenic and often inedible creations, and 13 years of memorable entries — including a Wagyu patty with goose liver, cinnamon, and apple, and a pig-brain burger from a man who built his fortune on braised pig brains.

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## Transcript

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