The Shanghai Lights and Adverts Administration announced April 12 it had launched an investigation into advertising boards atop 12 "cultural heritage preservation areas" located along the Huangpu River.
The boards, some measuring four storeys in height, will be demolished soon as they are "no longer fit for the surrounding environment", the Shanghai Daily reported.
Companies such as Epson printers, TDK, Toyota, LG Electronics, Nikon and Lenovo all currently have giant billboards displayed along the Bund.
A steel globe built to greet visitors to the APEC forum held in the city in 2001 is the first of the structures which will be demolished, a Lights and Advert Administration official said.
Shanghai cracks down on outdoor signs at the Bund
The billboards on top of buildings along Shanghai's famed Bund are soon to be history, as they have been deemed "advertising pollution" by a body of the local Government.