The food that my inlaws prepared was pretty much what you'd expect, although there was more meat and less rice than I expected. Dessert is an unknown concept.
Other than water, there was a lot of soda (or pop, if you prefer), and most of that was Coca-Cola. The cans of soda have a pull top, which usually took me by surprise. And don't worry too much about putting the cans in recycling bins - I once threw a can away, and in less than 10 seconds someone had scavenged it for recycling. Usually a can of Coke sold for 2.5 kuai (50 cents CA). At the Great Wall, we paid 5 kaui ($1 CA), and at the Beijing Hotel, I paid a whopping 18 kuai (21 with the service charge - $4 CA).
There are also lots of canned juices to drink. I tried a few; they tasted like fruit juice. I don't drink alcohol, so I can't comment on that.
We never ate at any such chain restaurants. After all, I can get those at home. The hotels were the most expensive places at which we ate, but even so it was less than $20 CA per person. The non-hotel restaurants (which had better food) were significantly cheaper. The street vendor (which I didn't eat at, but my wife did) charged less than $1 for a meal. Even the restaurant with live entertainment was less than $10 per person including drinks. And the service at most of these was excellent.