10 Kilogram - Food Stamp Dangtu County, Anhui

Chinese county-level grain bureaus issued ration coupons well into the 1990s, long after the national grain rationing system had officially begun winding down. The central government formally abolished the state grain ration coupon (粮票) system in 1993, but local bureaus in many rural counties — particularly in Anhui Province — continued issuing their own stamps for months or years afterward, managing local distribution networks that had not yet transitioned to open market supply. This Dangtu County piece sits in that gap: technically post-abolition, operationally still necessary.

Anhui had been among the provinces hardest hit by famine during the Great Leap Forward, and the provincial grain bureaucracy remained unusually entrenched as a result.