McDonald’s plans to accelerate restaurant openings in China by adding up to 250 new outlets this year. The expansion program would mark a new high in the number of McDonald’s store openings in a year in China, which is behind Japan in terms of having the largest network of restaurants established by McDonald’s in the Asia-Pacific region. CEO James Skinner said the company opened a record 200 restaurants in China in 2011. This year, the total number of its stores in the domestic market would be raised to between 1,689 and 1,714. It had 1,464 stores in China at the end of last year, compared with 3,298 in Japan. While McDonald’s remains the world’s largest operator of hamburger fast-food restaurants, its expansion efforts in China pale in comparison to those of Yum! Brands. Kentucky-based Yum! is the leading fast-food restaurant chain in China, where it has about 4,200 stores in more than 700 cities. Its brands include KFC, Pizza Hut and hotpot chain Little Sheep. Market research publisher IbisWorld forecast that China’s fast food industry would generate sales of USD147 billion by 2016, up from an estimated USD74.8 billion last year. There were nearly two million establishments operating in the industry last year, including franchise and chain operators of all sizes and independent Chinese-style fast-food facilities, according to IbisWorld.

Shanghai retailers recorded average daily sales of around CNY812 million during the Spring Festival holiday, the best holiday shopping season since 1999. The statistics covered 4,000 stores belonging to 452 large and mid-sized retailers. They reported combined sales of CNY5.69 billion from January 22 to January 28, according to  the Shanghai Commission of Commerce. The total sales represent 14% growth from the Spring Festival period in 2011. Nationwide, retail sales for the Spring Festival holiday rose 16.2% year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said. More than 3.1 million tourists visited Shanghai during the holiday, up about 3% from the same period last year, generating CNY2.9 billion in revenue, the Shanghai Tourism Administration said.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, one of the world’s most prestigious research foundations, announced that it was honoring 28 biomedical researchers who studied in the United States and then returned to their home nations. Each will receive a five-year research grant of USD650,000. Seven ― more than any other nation ― are from China. “They’re incredibly energetic, extremely smart, highly productive and accomplished,” Robert Tjian, President of the Institute, said of the Chinese winners. The 28 are receiving the Institute’s first International Early Career Scientist awards. Dr. Tjian said China, Portugal and Spain have made unusually strong efforts to excel in biomedical research. Four of the seven Chinese winners work at China’s new National Institute of Biological Sciences, which is led by an American-educated scientist, Wang Xiaodong. The remaining three work at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, the Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics in Hubei province, and Nankai University in Tianjin. Their research disciplines range from cell genetics to cell proteins and cell mechanics; from immune systems’ behavior to the human genome.

Hong Kong-listed stocks welcomed the Year of the Dragon with their second most auspicious Lunar New Year debut performance in 12 years. Resuming trade after a five-day holiday, the Hang Seng Index rose 1.63% to 20,439.14 points – its highest closing since September. That was the second-best Lunar New Year debut in more than a decade, beaten only by a bullish 4.48% rise on the first trading day in the Year of the Ox in 2009. The 1.63% gain on January 27 also matched exactly the increase on the first trading day of the last dragon year, in 2000. The stock market reacted to the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee’s decision to prolong its target for keeping interest rates ultra-low until late 2014. The Fed said last year it would target low interest rates – currently 0% to 0.25% – until 2013.

Hong Kong Airlines is preparing to launch its all-business-class service to London on March 7 after it took delivery of a specially configured Airbus A330-200. The new plane features 34 seats in a four-abreast arrangement that convert into lie-flat beds in Club Premium and 82 so-called cradle seats in a six-abreast configuration in Club Classic. That compares with around 253 seats in a traditional economy and business class layout. The aircraft is also equipped with in-flight wi-fi internet, sky bars and an audio-video-on-demand entertainment system. A month later Cathay Pacific Airways plans to introduce its first premium economy cabin in aircraft flying the London route. Meanwhile, Hong Kong Airlines has halted its Hong Kong-Moscow flights due to low passenger volumes. The Moscow service stopped on January 16, about 18 months after it was launched. The airline made no formal announcement about the ending of the Moscow service, which was launched in competition with Cathay Pacific’s service to the Russian capital. Aviation insiders said ending the Moscow flights could be a temporary measure for the winter, and that the airline could possibly revive the service in summer.