Insight: Hukou 'an obstacle to market economy'

When Du Yumeng was born in December 2005, she was probably not aware that she had been classified into a different category from other babies - a category which includes people toting wheelbarrows of fresh fruit, selling steamed buns from a corner booth or peddling phone cards. They all share one thing in common - a rural 'hukou', or household registration.

Set up in 1958 in order to control mass

Local police help migrant workers with their temporary residency at a job market in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning Province last week.Newsphoto

urbanization, China's hukou system effectively divides the population in two - 'the haves' (urban households) and 'the have not's' (rural households).