From the China Daily,  <a href="http://www1.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/30/content_294675.htm">Ad posters, billboards seen around late Chinese leader's statue in SW city</a>:

<blockquote>Right behind Mao's statue, a banner streamer is hosting 10 meters above Sichuan Exhibition Center, where a large-scale shopping fair for traditional Spring Festival goods is in sight.

In Mao's era, food supplies were rationed in China for some two decades and the people had to use coupons issued by their government then to buy food and other daily necessities in short supply. Now they can buy whatever they like and afford anything to their taste for the imminent New Year and the ensuing Spring Festival, or the Chinese lunar new year, at this fair. A variety of other goods fairs were held all year round. And a wide range of commodities were shipped in from all over China and elsewhere in the world like the United States, Japan and the ROK for consumers' choices. </blockquote>