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Shanghai's drive to improve quality of life and lose its bad reputation among visitors continues, with authorities proposing a law to ban swearing.

Officials want the use of swear words in public places to become illegal as they feel it adds to the common conception that people in Shanghai are rude.

In addition, it is hoped that by introducing a ban there will be fewer violent incidents, as small arguments can often escalate as a result of bad language.

Shanghai's city council is currently considering whether or not to introduce the law, which could be in place well before the Olympic Games in 2008.

'It's not certain whether this can pass or how we would punish people who use bad language even if it is passed,' a spokesman for Shanghai's Office of Spiritual Civilization Construction told the Shanghai Morning Post.

The proposed ban on swearing comes as China's financial centre works to improve its image with other proposed laws including a ban on spitting, littering, smoking and jaywalking.

Shanghai is on the east coast of China and has the famous Huangpu River running through it.

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