Guangzhou to resume reviewing billboard applications

At a press conference held last Friday, the local urban administration said agencies now can bid for over 100 billboards on 19 major roads and streets, including Guangzhou Avenue. More billboards will be available for bidding within a couple months.

In March 2009, Guangzhou initiated a crackdown on billboards and other outdoor advertising, following similar steps taken by many other Chinese cities including the country's capital Beijing, its commercial center Shanghai and Kunming, the capital city of Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The crackdown began in 2007, when Beijing decided to tear down banners, posters and billboards on top of office towers, along highways and construction sites, in what local officials called a massive "urban reorganisation exercise."

In April 2008, authorities in Shanghai also placed a ban on billboards.