Rachel Hou/Shanghai Daily news

New regulations for outdoor advertising signs have been approved by the municipality, the local government announced yesterday.
According to the new regulations, the local Sanitation Administration will take over the responsibility of overseeing outdoor advertising from the Shanghai Administration of Industry and Commerce.
Sign owners will be required to run annual safety checks on all advertising signs which have been displayed for more than two years. The check must be done before June 1 every year and the result must be submitted to the Shanghai Sanitation Administration.
The right to erect advertising signs in public places(public squares, greenbelt, etc.) will be put out to public tender. Part of the profit will be turned over to the city treasury.
The new regulations also simplify the application procedure for erecting advertising signs.
Local regulations currently in force were made in 1999. The city now has almost 20,000 outdoor advertising signs.