The spokesman of the Shanghai Public Sanitation Bureau called the problem of litter and spitting an urgent problem that has to be settled.

Yet, when the city sent more than 100 officials out to monitor 10 places for litter violators in Pudong's Lujiazui area, the city's financial zone, they netted only one violator.

Officials confronted the man, Zhang Sifu, for throwing his cigarette on the ground, just two meters from a trash container near the ferry station. He was fined 20 yuan (US$2.5).

He could have faced a fine of up to 200 yuan.

Zhang said 20 yuan is even higher than the price of a pack of cigarettes and will ensure that he remembers the lesson for a long time.

Officials said Sunday's anti-litter drive was the first day of a month-long campaign, which for now is restricted to Lujiazui. Officials said tracking down litter offenders was more difficult than they expected.

An official surnamed Jin said the biggest problem is that throwing waste is an instant action, so it is hard to distinguish who dropped the waste.

On Sunday, officials waited in front of big shopping malls, the ferry station and supermarkets.

But since there were so many people, officials could not identify who threw the waste in most cases. Some wastes were thrown from moving vehicles, including buses.

Liu Weiguang, the city's sanitation spokesman, said the campaign was just in Pudong New Area this time.

"But sooner or later, we will launch a city-wide campaign."

The campaign may introduce other forms of punishment.

"We will ask them to clean the waste themselves or help to publicize the campaign for one day," Liu said.

(Shanghai Daily May 23, 2006)