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[Piecake]

Every night across East Asia, in major cities like Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo, an invisible class of people — shut out of shelter systems, scorned by their families, down on their luck — turn to a beacon of Americana for a warm, dry place to sleep.

By day, the McDonald’s restaurants host birthday parties and book clubs. By night, when the floors have been mopped a final time and the pop music turned down, they become sanctuaries for the downtrodden, who pounce on half-eaten hamburgers and stale French fries, and stake out prized sleeping spots in padded booths.

Often called McRefugees, they vanish at sunrise, some combing their hair with plastic forks before slinking outside into the masses.

While other restaurants might kick them out, McDonald’s generally embraces wanderers like Mr. Ding, who have flocked to the chain as it has rolled out more 24-hour locations in Asia. More than half of the 2,200 McDonald’s restaurants in mainland China are now open 24 hours a day.

McDonald’s has spent decades cultivating an image of community here, building bright, stylish restaurants and adjusting menus to local tastes. In addition to the standard burgers and fries, the Beijing outlets serve taro pies and soy milk with fried bread. Many restaurants have become neighborhood institutions, symbols of status and cleanliness, popular spots for study groups, business meetings and leisurely chats.

“McDonald’s welcomes everyone to visit our restaurants anytime,” said Regina Hui, a spokeswoman for McDonald’s in China.

How welcoming is up to each franchise owner, the company says. “We are definitely a welcoming place, but I wouldn’t call it a policy,” Becca Hary, a spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., wrote in an email.

How welcoming is up to each franchise owner, the company says. “We are definitely a welcoming place, but I wouldn’t call it a policy,” Becca Hary, a spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., wrote in an email.

Tension over when that welcome is overstayed has long been an issue for McDonald’s around the world. In 2014, a McDonald’s in New York City called the police to remove a group of older Korean patrons who had turned the restaurant into a social club, spending more time than money. And a McDonald’s in Manchester, England, came under fire last year for refusing to serve a customer who wore dirty clothing, thinking he was homeless.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/w...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

I know McDonald's has gotten a lot of shit here lately for their incompetent business decisions, but good on them for this.