All roads in Shanghai will have new street signs before the World Expo 2010, the municipal engineering administration bureau announced yesterday.

The new plates will include the range of address numbers within each block, said Liu Jianyao, an official with the bureau.

"They will also be taller, 2.5 m, bigger - at least 1.2 m long and 0.35 m wide - and have a prominent blue color, to cater for the needs of both pedestrians and drivers," he said.

At some major intersections, street signs will be 1.5 m long and 0.45 m wide and indicate the names of both of the intersecting streets.

Any road wider than 40 m will have street signs posted on both sides and any road longer than 400 m will have signs posted at the midway point. The goal is to post 25,000 street signs in Shanghai.

Zhang Xintai, chief engineer with the bureau, said that all the province or city names appearing on the signs will be in pinyin, like Xizang, instead of Tibet; Aomen, instead of Macao; and Wulumuqi, instead of Urumqi.

Wang Yizhong, vice-director of the bureau, said the bureau's officials had consulted experts and local people.

"Seventy percent of the changes to the signs were contributed by local people," he said.

(China Daily August 24, 2007)