One of the oddest things I've seen travelling is the Starbucks in the middle of the Forbidden City in Beijing. I've stopped there several times and admit to having a latte or iced mocha there once or twice. However, we'll have to find some other refreshment stop in the Forbidden City from now on. The people who run the Forbidden City apparently decided they wanted all of the vendors to operate under a common brand, so Starbucks decided to close the joint. Oh well.

More from the International Herald Tribune.

Thanks to Richard for tipping me onto this story.

(I've taken hundreds, maybe thousands of photos in the Forbidden City, but I don't seem to have any of the Starbucks. I'm sure I took some. Weird.)