Shanghai has released a guideline for the management and administration of private cultural relics trade.

The regulation will come into effect on March 1, this year, according to the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

It is China's first provincial-level government guideline on prospering and regulating the cultural relics trading market.

Shanghai is a leading city in private cultural relics trade and one of the ports with the largest number of cultural relics imports and exports in China.

In 2019, Shanghai held 171 auctions of cultural relics and artworks, with a total turnover of more than 5 billion yuan (around $720 million).