Geographical Study on Free Markets in China

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In 1992 I made a data base of 3,633 markets listed in 'Zhongguo-jishi-daguan' published in 1988 and analyzed it using computer in order to understand the characteristics of the markets. The main results are as follow ; 1)Traditional terminology for the markets is disappearing. 2)Most of the markets are classified as 'general market', some are as 'specialized market' and a few are as 'whole sale market'. 3)Fourty per cent of them are daily markets and others are periodic ones. The latters are held accoding to mainly ten-days cycle, but sometimes twelve-days or seven-days one. 4)Average number of attendants and average sales per day at the markets are fairly large. 5)Average area of the market place and that of the buildings are slso fairly big. 6)Main goods sold at each market are agricultural products, manufacturing products or both of them. 7)Most of the markets are located along trunk roads, and soae are along waterways or railways.In 1993 I analyzed statistical year books of all provinces in order to get general ideas of the development of the free markets between 1980 and 1990 and the areal differenciation of them in 1988. The results are as follow ; 1)Number of free markets and sales there are increasing year by year, particularly in urban area. 2)Share of sales at the markets in total retail sales is increasing year by year. It means that the free markets are gradually rising their importance. 3)The markets are strengthening their characteristics as perishable food markets year by year. 4)Location of the markets, density of their distribution, sales at them, share of the sales in total retail sales, and composition of each kind of goods in the sales vary in each province because of the differences of the degree in urbanization and economic development and the phisical conditions between northern and southern or coastal and inland regions.