KFC is giving away whole watermelons with fried chicken in China

China has officially entered Sanfu — the hottest stretch of the year — and KFC is celebrating it in the most Chinese way possible: by giving away whole watermelons with fried chicken.

Starting on July 15, the first day of Sanfu, more than 8,000 KFC stores across China launched a summer meal deal. Customers who ordered a 34.9 RMB baked chicken package through the KFC app received a free mini red-flesh watermelon, with only 80,000 available nationwide.

The promotion quickly became one of the day's hottest food topics. In Shanghai, KFC even sold the same mini watermelons separately for 16.9 RMB each in dine-in stores. The first batch of 5,000 sold out almost immediately, and some locations reportedly saw people queueing or even paying others to line up for them.

Sanfu is the hottest period of the Chinese summer, lasting around 30 to 40 days. Based on the traditional Chinese calendar, it marks the most humid and sweltering time of the year, when temperatures can feel like living inside a giant sauna. To cope with the heat, many Chinese people have long followed Sanfu traditions such as eating watermelon and drinking Sanfu tea (fu cha), a herbal tea believed to help cool the body and stay hydrated. That makes KFC's fried chicken-and-watermelon combo feel surprisingly on theme, pairing crispy, salty chicken with one of China's favorite summer fruits.

This isn't even KFC China's first attempt. Last summer it gave away yellow-flesh watermelons, while this year's switch to the more familiar red variety has sparked another round of online buzz. Sometimes, the best seasonal menu item isn't on the menu at all — it's the fruit that comes with it.