McDonald's plans to nearly double restaurants in China

NEW YORK (AP) - McDonald's will nearly double the number of restaurants in China in the next five years, eventually surpassing Japan as the hamburger chain's second-biggest market outside the U.S.

The company, based in Oak Brook, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, expects to have 4,500 restaurants in China by 2022, up from 2,500. With fewer people eating at U.S. locations, it hopes to grow sales in China by double digits in each of the next five years.

The announcement Tuesday comes a week after McDonald's completed a previously announced deal to sell most of its operations in China. The deal leaves McDonald's Corp. with a 20 percent stake in its China business.

There are about 37,000 McDonald's restaurants worldwide and more than 14,000 in the U.S.