Eastern Shanghai has replaced southern Guangzhou as China's top city in catering retail in 2005, according to the statistics issued by the Ministry of Commerce.

Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an were listed as the top five cities in catering retail volume last year, the ministry's statistics said.

Their catering retail volume was RMB35.03 billion, RMB30.17 billion, RMB26.79 billion, RMB20.54 billion and RMB20.54 billion, respectively.

The catering retail volume in Shanghai, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Nanjing, Tianjin, Wuhan and Ningbo grew fastest among all Chinese cities last year, according to the ministry.

The retail sales of China's catering industry totaled RMB888.68 billion in 2005, a rise of 17.7% year on year, or RMB133.6 billion more than that in the previous year.