BEIJING - A Chinese lawyer has sued McDonald's in China for using mostly English, not Chinese, on its receipts, violating his right to information, media reported on Friday.

The lawyer, identified only as Shan, decided to take legal action against the world's largest restaurant chain after he ate at two McDonald's restaurants in Beijing in May and June.

"McDonald's offers food service in China, but it does not use Chinese, which violates the consumers' right to know," the Beijing Youth Daily quoted Shan as saying.

Shan has asked McDonald's to apologise in newspapers and give him symbolic compensation of 1 yuan (6 pence), the newspaper said. The case began on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted McDonald's as saying it was not fair to accuse the company of not using Chinese as its advertisements and menus were all in Chinese and its staff all spoke Chinese.

The receipts had changed into Chinese since July, it said. The company was not immediately available for comment.

Cases of east-meets-west culture clashes have been widely reported in China since the country embraced economic reforms in the late 1970s.

Earlier this month, a controversial Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing, closed its doors after facing years of opposition.