Many Chinese cities have auctioned off the naming rights for subway stations, largely to raise funds for operation costs, including Jiangsu province's Nanjing, and Changsha in Hunan province.

However, Tianjin's metro operator, which initially introduced the policy, has announced that four its 10 sponsored subway stations have already removed their company logos, while the rest will follow suit when contracts expire in 2013.

One of the reasons behind this decision is because passengers complained about the long names, saying they were confusing, according to an official with Tianjin Metro's marketing department.

Zhao Jian, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University, said the subway-operating companies usually collect extra funds through selling the naming rights, but said the funds are "far from enough to help develop the subway".

Thousands of millions of yuan will be spent on subway projects every year, and the money collected from selling naming rights covers only a small part of the total expense, he said.