Shanghai is planning to hire more people with higher education as city cleaners to provide better services, eastday.com reported on Saturday.

Most of the city's current cleaning staff are from rural areas, said an official from the Shanghai City Appearance and Environmental Sanitation Administration Bureau.

Although they have contributed greatly to the city's environment, they lack proper skills training, the official noted.

The bureau employed six college graduates to work in the city's Luwan District six months ago and received quite good feedback from the public.

Twenty-four-year-old Yu Xiaoxin is one of them. Her job is to clean up Huaihai Road, a well-known street in the prosperous metropolis.

Yu calls herself a city musician, "I am full of joy whenever I see the clean street" she said. She was on duty during the country's National Day Holiday.

Shanghai produces about 1.2 tonnes of rubbish a day, and according to statistics that number increases dramatically during public holidays when tourists from home and abroad flock to the city.

(CRI.cn October 8, 2007)