Under the project, the municipal government has promised to instal "convenient and healthy" breakfast retailers in town by December 1.

The first meal of the day has long been a concern for the city, since fewer than 20 percent of Beijing's 30,000 registered restaurants sell breakfast - leaving more than 60 per cent of the local breakfast market up to unlicensed peddlers.

Many of these carts posed potential health problems, officials said.

Under the project, five carefully selected government-approved companies will provide breakfast via carts stationed across the city. The food has all been prepared on strictly controlled production lines and cooked in a hygienic environment, city officials said.

Dozens of breakfast carts opened for business yesterday, an increase from the original 10 pilot carts that were put into trial operation in late September.

More vendors are expected to open today and tomorrow. The carts are expected to grow to 280 by tomorrow, said an official at the municipal commercial authority surnamed Gong.

"Our breakfast project aims, in three years' time, to allow 90 per cent of Beijing's urban residents find a convenient, healthy and delicious breakfast within a five to 10 minutes' walk from their homes," said Gong.

Thirty-five-year-old Tian Lixin wheeled her one-metre-long cart onto Jianwai Avenue around 8 am yesterday for the first time.

She sold warm steamed stuffed buns, milk, soya bean milk, tea eggs, fried dough twists, green onion pancakes, egg rolls and bread which each only cost no more than 2 yuan (US$0.24) to a steady stream of customers.

"Sorry, this is my first day at work," she said repeatedly as she moved as fast as she could to pass out food and make change for hungry customers.

(China Daily November 29, 2002)