Like Jian Shuo Wang, who’s been to a great number of Starbucks in Shanghai, I’ve been to a fair number of cities with Starbucks in them. In the order that I went to first (I’m trying to remember this off by heart), they are…

1. Beijing, China
2. San Francisco, United States
3. Zürich, Switzerland
4. London, United Kingdom
5. Tianjin, China
6. Shanghai, China
7. Guangzhou, China
8. Shenzhen, China
9. Hong Kong
10. Taipei, Taiwan
11. Kaohsiung, Taiwan
12. Qingdao, China
13. Chengdu, China
14. Nanjing, China
15. Ji’nan, China
16. Zhuhai, China
17. Macao
18. Suzhou, China

(A little note: these are all arranged by country, region or territory — for example, Hong Kong is listed on its own as it’s an SAR. The entry “China” refers solely to the mainland.)

From those that I remember, here’s what the service I’ve gotten in each city reminds me of:

• Beijing, China: Capital arrogance. The only city that, in slang-ese, “bitched” (so-called) me. I have had some pretty clueless and even the rare arrogant barista here. But since this is “home base” for me, I’ll have to take that…
• San Francisco, United States: Indifferent. You would have expected a “fuller American experience” in San Fran, in America. Thing is, nope. Either it was my croissant-plus-tea, or it might have been something else…
• Zürich, Switzerland: Near-zip wifi. In this day and age of the Internet, getting a “mere” 30 minutes for free meant basically nothing.
• London, United Kingdom: Work-for-breakfast. The era of David Feng breakfasts at the Starbucks became permanent in London, when I failed to locate my bed-and-breakfast’s “feeding hall”, as I’d call it. No idea how I pulled it off without the iPhone. Best described in Chinese as the typical case of the “blind cat banging into a dead rat” (瞎貓碰上死耗子).
• Tianjin, China: No Tianjinese. There’s enmity between soccer fans of Tianjin and Beijing, and Tianjin “gets its back on Beijing” by adopting its local lingo, Tianjinese, where all the spoken tones get shaken, stirred and mixed right out of order.
• Shanghai, China: Incredibly friendly. The Shanghainese are supposedly “domestic-racist” so-called because they only have an eye out for themselves and detest the rest of the PRC populace. Either that, or that was a terribly terse and lopsided point of view. In reality, the baristas in Shanghai went out of their way to be extraordinarily accommodating. My views on Shanghainese people flipped 180° after being treated with respect by a barista near Nanjing East Road.
• Guangzhou, China: Rushed. Either that, or I myself was in a rush. My most fond memories remain those of the Starbucks right inside Guangzhou’s East Railway Station. The best mix between efficiency and relaxation.
• Shenzhen, China: Blah. No, it wasn’t the baristas: It was just a case of indifference. Shenzhen is a modern city sans the culture (paling in comparison to culture-rich Zhuhai, on the border with Macao). No barista was exceptionally nice or nasty, but it didn’t make itself a better aspect of a culture-bland city.
• Kaohsiung, Taiwan: Cosmopolitan. I was on the upper floor of Kaohsiung Starbucks by the Kaohsiung Arena, after taking a quick Subway lunch. (I stick to a pretty boring “predefined” diet that’s the same anywhere on the planet because the idea of food poisoning due to new and alien cuisine just didn’t tick with me.) On a Mac note, this was the first store where I used iPhoto’s Maps feature, which tagged geotagged pictures.
• Taipei, Taiwan: Tea! I was totally unaware of the new menu choice, which included Chinese tea, until the Taipei Starbucks just “hit” me, boom, like that — with good tea.
• Qingdao, China: Late night relief. I was pretty happy to hit the Starbucks in Qingdao after a day’s rail-station-tripping with @blcsfo in November 2010. I did all the driving, so the Bi Luo Chun tea (I think) soothed my nerves.
• Chengdu, China: Few and far between. We (me and @sg_panda) didn’t go to the one by the showcase Tianfu Square, but to a one closer to my hotel. Except for that it was a tad late and I was waiting on a message from my then-girlfriend (now-wife) Tracy, the Chengdu experience was pretty good.
• Hong Kong: It was for the Starbucks card. I did a play of cards by using my Octopus card to buy a Starbucks card, which basically rendered either or both cards useless. Now the Starbucks card is a mere souvenir: it’s much easier, the way I see it, to grab a tea with an Octopus card.
• Nanjing, China: Very 1912. I was a little taken back to see a Costa Coffee and a Starbucks next to each other at the part of Nanjing known simply as “1912″ (right next to the former Presidential Palace). I also missed buying a mug (instead I went for a tumbler, until I was told the glass they used in it had issues).
• Ji’nan, China: Relaxing. When Tracy and I stepped off the G1 HSR train from Beijing South on a historical first journey (complete with loads of interviews on the train), we headed straight for the Starbucks. After somewhat failing to find it on the first shot, we eventually found it in a part of town that was pretty much bustling with biz-and-econ life.
• Zhuhai, China: Relaxing (again). Tracy and I found this right by the Haibin Park (thanks to Google Maps on the iPhone). A tad disappointing there wasn’t a Zhuhai mug, but still a good place to relax before we hit the Gongbei border check to head to Macao.
• Macao: Extremely personable. They remembered my surname (from my credit card) and addressed me as “Mr Feng”, something that I did not expect. It came as one of the most positive surprises and it felt that I was treated like either God, or something pretty close to it. They win in terms of the Best Starbucks. When you treat a person right (like that), you gain yourselves an extremely loyal consumer.
• Suzhou, China: Hidden but courteous. I have to say, the one by Metro City Suzhou is so covert that I spent 15 minutes in the rain just finding it Still, thankfully, we found it. The staff there were courteous and struck up a fair brief but friendly chatter.

Coming up soon: Starbucks in Harbin, Changchun (perhaps), Shijiazhuang, Kunming, Shenyang and Dalian…