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Abstract
In the People's Republic of China, state enterprises under central direction used to monopolize retailing activities within cities. Since 1978, the liberalization of state control coupled with an urgent need to solve urban unemployment led to a sudden mushrooming of informal retailing activities in the form of urban fairs. These activities have since developed into a sizeable and competent retailing subsystem within the Chinese city. In this paper, food retailing in urban fairs of Guangzhou, the major city in South China, has been examined in detail to bring out the pace, characteristics, spatial patterns, and policy aspects of such retailing subsystems.