Authorities also claimed that some booths secretly sold pornography magazines.

Fan Yaobang, retired vice-chief planner of the Beijing Municipal Institute of City Planning and Design, believes the newsstands could be saved if planned well.

"The booths are convenient for residents. They can grab a newspaper when lining up for a bus, or during a walk after dinner," Fan said, adding that the booths can provide jobs.

"However, it is not OK to put them in the middle of the street, which may cause accidents or increase potential danger risks," he added.

Internet users said the closures will affect the local newspaper and magazine businesses.

However, Nie Guangpeng, director of the circulation department at Henan Daily, said no circulation declines have been noted since the crackdown.

A Zhengzhou resident who gave only his online name, Shan Niufu, has been taking photos of newsstands since the crackdown began.

Officials in some other provincial capitals are also bothered by newsstands. Authorities in Changchun, in Jilin province, and Yinchuan, in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, announced plans in 2011 and 2017 to do something about them.

However, no other provincial capital has banned the stands so far.

Liu Dongwei, chief acting architect at the China Institute of Building Standard Design and Research, said that no other city has banned newspaper booths in China or abroad.

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