View of the newly opened Church"s Texas Chicken, a fried chicken chain, in Shanghai. NURPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES

　　SHANGHAI — One September day at lunchtime, the line outside a newly opened Church"s Texas Chicken — a US-based fried chicken chain — wound back two or three times, filling nearly half the sidewalk on a downtown Shanghai food street.

　　After about an hour, two young women were nearing the end of the line. "It"s a first store, so a big crowd is only normal," one said. Behind them was an eager buyer surnamed Shi, who had studied in Canada. The bone-in fried chicken felt like an old acquaintance, he said. "It"s juicier."