BEIJING — China may be the hardest place in the world to sell cheese, but Liu Yang has been trying anyway — and Western fast food may be his salvation.

There has not been dairy in the mainstream Chinese diet for centuries — no butter, no milk, no cheese, nothing. Ninety percent of the population is said to be lactose intolerant. So when Mr. Liu opened a two-room cheese shop on the outskirts of Beijing five years ago, “People said, ‘What is this strange stinky thing?’ ” he recalled. “ ‘How am I supposed to cook it? How am I supposed to eat it?’ ”

Mr. Liu’s offerings of brousse, crottin, Camembert and tomme at first mystified Chinese customers, even though prosperity was driving demand for other European luxuries. He now sells about 33 pounds of cheese a day, and he hopes to do better as more Chinese become acquainted with the stuff.

That is already happening, albeit through a side door: a growing appetite for American-style fast food. The average Chinese city dweller eats it at least once a week, by one estimate; Pizza Hut is opening stores on the mainland at a rate of about one a day.