‘Sweet Love’ wall poll favors ‘romantic’ graffiti

Fifty-three percent of microbloggers responding to an ongoing weeklong survey by Shanghai authorities have voted in favor of keeping the graffiti along the city's famous "Sweet Love" wall on Tian'ai Road, or translating to "Sweet Love Road."

It is a popular spot for young couples, who find romance in scribbling down love notes on the 500-meter-long partition.

As of late last night, the remaining 47 percent of the some 150 respondents disagreed with the slight majority - which believes that the "graffiti belongs to the scenery" - saying that the "pleasant environment should be kept neat and clean."

The "romantic" wall soon became a hit among young couples in 2008, after the city covered the divider with both Chinese and English love poems. A special postbox stand along the street also feeds into the built-up romance of the street, allowing couples to send postcards earmarked with a stamp of three hearts representing a shamrock leaf.

Nowadays, lovebirds enjoy reading the poems before adding their own names or personal additions to the wall, despite a local regulation stipulating that individuals can be fined up to 500 yuan ($79), if caught marking up the surface.

The situation has left Hongkou district authorities to complain about the headaches of cleaning up the penned notes, saying that workers are forced to remove the messy writings multiple times per year to keep them from giving the city a bad reputation among visitors. The most recent cleanup was carried out last month, according to district authorities.

Zhao Ming, a press officer for Hongkou district, said Sunday that while the final decision on how to handle the issue will be made by Sichuan Road North Sub-district Office, district officials are polling the public until Friday to aid sub-district authorities in the matter. The Global Times failed to reach the sub-district office Sunday.