Lights shut, parks closed as typhoon comes

Shanghai has switched off all landscape lights across the city and a large number of parks in the city will close on Sunday because of typhoon Ampil, the city's greenery authorities announced on Saturday night.

These include all parks in Huangpu, Putou, Baoshan and Yangpu districts, and the Binjiang Forest Park, Daguanyuan Garden, or Grand View Garden, Shanghai Auto Expo Park, Huashan Children's Park, Huaxin People's Park and Qinyuan Lake greenery area, according to the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.

Other parks on the list are Qiuxiapu, Huilongtan, Zhongshan, Tianshan, Tianyuan, Shuixia, Paotaiwan, Fengxi, Jinshan, Tinglin, Zhangyan, Binhai, Huicuiyuan, Qushuiyuan, Zhuxiyuan, Chongming Yingzhou and Zuibaichi.

A total of 243 parks in Shanghai have taken emergency precaution measures, and 58 parks with amusement facilities have suspended operation of these facilities, the bureau said.

About 30,000 sanitation workers have cleared garbage and sludge on 76,000 outlets to ensure smooth drainage and about 46,000 garbage bins have been cleaned.

Domestic garbage transit stations in downtown areas and garbage piers are in full swing to ensure that garbage will not pile up.

More than 70,000 street-side trees with potential safety hazards have been reinforced, and over 7,700 temporary advertisements were taken down.

A total of 7,726 outdoor billboards, landscape lights and signboards with potential safety hazards were spotted in inspections and these risks have been eliminated, according to the bureau.