‘Who wants McDonald’s?’: mainland tourist shares HK$10,000 prize in Hong Kong

A mainland Chinese tourist who won a HK$10,000 (US$1,275) McDonald’s voucher in Hong Kong has turned her last 24 hours in the city into a whirlwind giveaway to the elderly, cleaners and the homeless.

The woman, who shared her spree on Chinese social media platform RedNote, said she won the “Hong Kong McDonald’s HK$10,000 subsidy” through Alipay on Saturday.

According to a screenshot of her post, the voucher was valid for only one week and allowed up to 10 transactions, each capped at HK$1,000 and was restricted to McDonald’s stores in Hong Kong.

With only a day left before returning to the mainland and in-store gift cards sold out, the woman decided to treat strangers as a way of sharing her good fortune around the city.

“The first time I saw this prize, I was completely stunned,” she wrote, adding that she then decided to do “something crazy and fun”.

Over her last 24 hours in Hong Kong, she went to multiple McDonald’s branches in Wan Chai, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui to place orders for strangers.

Describing herself as an introvert, she admitted offering free food to strangers was difficult at first, saying she was so flustered she “grabbed people at McDonald’s entrances, switching between Chinese and English at once.”

However, she said: “Seeing everyone’s happy faces, I got addicted immediately.”

She moved between outlets to avoid burdening staff at a single branch and to stay within the voucher’s per-transaction limit.

She said she even shouted inside one McDonald’s she visited: “Who wants McDonald’s? I’ll buy it for you!”

Despite receiving few responses at first, her social media post in Hong Kong about the giveaway gained traction and users started to turn up to help promote her efforts.

Apart from random passers-by, she gave meals to police officers, cleaners, homeless people on the street, and the elderly as well as children.

Some strangers brought small gifts such as fruit, snacks, face masks and postcards in exchange for the free food – items the woman kept as souvenirs.

The woman also admitted the giveaway left her exhausted. After giving away thousands of dollars' worth of burgers on the first night, a mix-up left her with a bag of sauce instead of her own burger.

Too excited to sleep and suffering stomach pain, she resumed on Sunday morning to finish the remaining credit on sanitation workers and passers-by.

As she departed from the city at West Kowloon Station on Sunday, the woman called this journey “something I will always feel supremely happy and proud of” in a post, saying “I’m just a lucky passer-on of goodwill: I did not really spend my own money, and I could not have eaten it all anyway. Why not?”

Her series of posts had drawn over 125,000 likes on RedNote by Wednesday, with many comments praising her generosity and kind acts.

A user on RedNote shared his free treat from the woman in a post that generated more than 54,000 likes, saying he was surprised that someone pointed at him as soon as he walked in, saying: “I’m treating you!”

“What a delightful way to end of the day. It was a brief encounter, but I hope everything goes well for her in the future,” he wrote.

Another Hongkonger who received the free meal also shared on Threads: “The whole thing was so joyful. Good deeds know no borders.”

Alipay Official also responded to her post, saying: “The HK$10,000 prize was simply won by you, but you passed this happiness on to everyone.”

McDonald’s later sent her a HK$1,000 meal card as a gift, which the woman said she would use to treat cleaners and relatives back on the mainland, “letting the kindness continue”.