This Day, That Year

Item from July 29, 1988, in China Daily: Customers buy high-grade cigarettes at Beijing's Xidan Market yesterday, which was the first day after the State lifted price controls over cigarettes and liquors. Some cigarette prices soared to as much as one month's wages for an ordinary Chinese worker yesterday as prices were allowed to fluctuate for the first time since 1949 ... Zhonghua cigarettes were selling at 100 yuan a carton (200 cigarettes) at the Dongfang Market, one of the major shopping centers in Beijing. At other stores, the same cigarettes were selling for from 80 to 90 yuan, compared with 19 yuan in the past.

China hiked its cigarette tax early this year, raising the wholesale tax rate for cigarettes from 5 percent to 11 percent, effective on May 10.

The move will bring in an extra 87.6 billion yuan ($14.1 billion) in government revenue, industry analysts estimated.