Amended on the Amendment to Rules and Normative Documents by Environmental Protection Department under the State Council, which promulgated on July 12, 1999 as Decree No. 6 of the State Environmental Protection Administration.

(Issued by the National Environmental Protection Agency and the National Administration for Industry and Commerce on February 21, 1995)

Along with the rapid development of the tertiary industry in China, a large number of guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, song and dance halls, play fields, audio and video projection halls, laundering and dyeing shops, entertainment and service facilities have been established in various localities. Establishment of these facilities has played an active role in prospering the urban and rural economy and enriching the material and cultural life of the people. However, an improper selection of sites, simple and crude equipment and a lack of the facilities for the prevention and control of pollution exist in some enterprises. Particularly sewage, oil fume, peculiar smell and smoke dust of boilers from some catering enterprises, noise from the entertainment trade, vibration and noise from the food processing industry, noise and thermal pollution of air conditioners from the hotel and commercial trades have seriously affected the normal life, work and study of the surrounding residents. The following Notice is hereby issued for the purpose of tightening up environmental management of catering, entertainment and service trades, protecting and improving the living environment and ecological environment in the surrounding areas of these enterprises and guaranteeing health of the human body:

1. The selection of sites of catering, entertainment and service enterprises shall comply with the requirements for the urban planning and environmental functions of the locality, deploy the facilities for the prevention and control of pollution and protect the surrounding living environment. Construction and operation of the above-mentioned enterprises must observe the environmental protection laws, rules and regulations, and standards of the state and prevent environmental pollution.

2. In order to prevent occurrence of environmental pollution and disturbance to the residents, environmental protection requirements shall be reiterated to the units and individuals that will establish catering, entertainment and service enterprises in the counties and towns at and above the county level:

a) Catering enterprises must deploy facilities for recovering oil fume and peculiar smell which shall be discharged through special flue pipes and which are forbidden to be discharged through the flue pipes of the residential apartments. The height and location of such special flue pipes shall not affect the living environment of the surrounding residents.

b) Boilers burning coal must use formed coal or other clean fuels and shall be equipped with dust removers for eliminating smoke. It is forbidden to loosely burn the raw coal. The discharged smoke dust shall reach the discharge standards prescribed by the state and the local authorities.

c) Entertainment halls, motor vehicle repair plants and other processing plants whose emission of noises exceed the standard are not allowed to be established in the residential apartment buildings. Entertainment halls and processing plants that emit noise established in the populated areas of the city and town must employ the corresponding noise insulating measures. Business hours at night shall be restricted and their discharge of noise shall reach the noise standards.

d) If air conditioners installed by guesthouses, hotels and commercial businesses produce noise and thermal pollution, the operating units shall adopt prevention and control measures. Air conditioners installed near the residential areas shall be equipped with the noise and noise insulating devices so as to reach the local environmental noise standards. Radiating devices of air conditioners that directly send out heat to the side pavements and windows of residents are not allowed to be installed on the footways and on the side of the main streets of the commercial areas.

e) Service enterprises such as repair and processing industries that send out offensive odour and peculiar smell are forbidden to be established in the residential areas.

f) Establishment of catering and service enterprises is strictly restricted at the place without sewage pipes and networks. Catering and service enterprises whose sewage is discharged to the municipal sewage pipes and networks shall be equipped with the oil separation pool or adopt other measures so as to attain the standards for sewage water intake of the municipal sewage pipes and networks of the locality. Their residue dregs and waste materials are not allowed to be discharged into the sewer. If sewage is directly discharged into the surrounding water body, it shall be treated so that it reaches the waste water discharge standards prescribed by the state and the local authorities. It can be discharged only when it is approved by the competent department of the environmental protection administration of the locality.

3. If pollution is generated in the newly constructed, reconstructed (including renovated) and expanded catering, entertainment and service enterprises and those that change the production line, the relevant units shall apply and handle the environmental impact registration or examination and approval procedures with the local competent department of the environmental protection administration in accordance with the environmental protection laws and relevant administrative rules and regulations.

4. When enterprises with pollution apply for the establishment and modification of registration, where the laws and regulations of the state need examination and approval, they shall submit the environmental impact assessment report (statement).

While examining and approving registration and application and supervising management of enterprises, the administration for industry and commerce may ask enterprises to explain the prevention and control of pollution. If the possible pollution or pollution that has existed has been discovered, the enterprises shall, in a timely manner, report the situation to the competent department of the environmental protection administration.

5. Establishment of catering, entertainment and service projects shall implement the "three simultaneities" system that the facilities for the prevention and control of pollution and other public hazards shall be designed, constructed and commissioned simultaneously with the main project. Pollutant discharge shall reach the discharge standards for pollutant discharge specified by the state or local authorities.

6. Catering, entertainment and service enterprises that discharge waste water, waste gas, solid discarded substances, give rise to noise and vibration must pay the pollution emission charges in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state.

7. Any units and individuals shall have the right to report the behaviour of environmental pollution of the catering, entertainment and service enterprises to the competent departments of the environmental protection administrations and the administrations for industry and commerce. The relevant department shall, upon receipt of the complaints, reply to it or impose a penalty.

8. The competent departments of the environmental protection administrations and the administrations for industry and commerce at all levels shall cooperate closely with each other and strengthen their on-the-spot inspection and supervisory management of the catering, entertainment and service enterprises.

As for those units and individuals that violate the relevant environmental protection laws, rules and regulations of the state, the competent department of the environmental protection administration shall order it to rectify it within a time limit and impose a penalty. Enterprises that have seriously polluted the environment shall, at the same time, be ordered to stop use of the facilities that have produced pollution.

9. The competent departments of the environmental protection administrations and the administrations for industry and commerce at all levels shall make a periodic and joint inspection of environmental pollution of enterprises in a planned way in accordance with the spirit of the Circular and the actual situation of the locality.