There has been wide interest in an item we ran last week on McDonald's mainland China expansion plans. The company has given us a special statement. For starters, or maybe even for dinner, it says the most popular McDonald's products in Beijing and all over China are . . . chicken products like nuggets and chicken burgers. As we said last week, the fast-food chain intends opening more than 100 stores each year in China, despite cutting back operations elsewhere. Here's a bit of the statement, which should be of particular interest to marketers. 'McDonald's continues to be extremely excited with the potential of the China market. We are confident that the strong government will continue to build on the past successes.' Supporting its argument that McDonald's contributes to China's economic growth, the company said it already employed 40,000 people in China and would add about 10,000 more for every 100 new outlets. McDonald's noted some differences between Hong Kong and mainland China - for example, mainland customers visit less frequently than their SAR counterparts. Ale and hearty: Reader Tom Marrin has identified one of the world's most interesting McDonald's outlets: the one at Fenwick Pier in Wan Chai. Tom warned us he had not checked it out personally, but his information is no urban myth: the McDonald's at Fenwick Pier is one of just a few in the world which sell beer, an extremely popular product with seafaring customers. Terror train: Reader James Wilson, a frequent MTR traveller, says he has been frightened by our favourite company's (McDonald's) outside advertising. 'Please tell me they have only one McDonald's nightmare train,' he asks without seeming to expect a response. Mr Wilson then reports how he was standing on the MTR platform in Central on November 14 when a rather gaudy red and scary McDonald's train pulled up. 'I thought: 'Oh well, I suppose it is different'. 'However, when I entered the train, I was left breathless. The interior is completely blue with giant burgers, fries, fish burgers etc leaping out at you from every angle. 'I found myself retreating into a corner.' 'Did you ever have these nightmares where the walls were closing in on you and giant objects were about to consume you? (or am I just confessing to my underlying insecurities?) Thank God I was able to escape at Wan Chai.' Mr Wilson signs off with a congratulatory note to the Hong Kong advertising industry. 'They have probably achieved what parents have been trying to do for years: put little children off McDonald's for life. I know that since that ride, I now involuntarily cross to the other side of the street when I near a McDonald's web (sorry, outlet.)' Go figure: We noted some improvement last week in the sensitivity of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's super computer. It selected a couple of our winning Mark 6 numbers, notably 33, which our guest numbers specialist Suharti Rahmad had singled out as 'a nice, symmetrical number'. More praise for the Jockey Club's selection, specifically the spread of its numbers: more than half, including the extra number, were above 20, as Suharti said. Nonetheless, the selection of 5, 8 and 9 as winners by the Jockey Club is deplorable. Let us hope the club can make things right by selecting more of this week's numbers, which have been predicted by Atika Sukimun, an Indonesian woman who, like many Indonesian people, uses two names and lives in Tsim Sha Tsui. 'I have two jobs and three sisters,' Atika told us. 'As you can see, there are four letters in my first name and seven in my second. It's highly unlikely that 2,3 and 4 could all be winners, but combinations of them are very likely: 23, 32, 24, 34. 'None of last week's winners have much of a chance this week, but I could be wrong, a five-letter word.' Graphic: whee18gbz