McDonald's, the world's biggest restaurant company, said that it plans to keep opening 100 outlets a year in China to meet demand in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

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The majority of new stores this year will be drive-throughs, Jeff Schwartz, the chief executive of McDonald's China, said in an interview in Beijing. Beijing's car owners are attractive to McDonald's, because about 1,100 new vehicles a day are added to the three million already on the city's roads and highways.

McDonald's is turning to drive-throughs as well as local recipes that cater to Chinese culinary tastes as it tries to narrow the gap with Yum Brands' KFC unit in China's 1 trillion yuan (US$125 billion) food industry. McDonald's has 670 restaurants in China, according its Web site.

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