A city traffic officer who stopped jaywalkers and errant bicycle riders, and made them fill a notebook page with the phrase "Red for stop, green for go", has been ordered to stop it.

Ji Xuefeng, an auxiliary traffic officer in Linfen, Shanxi province, made rule-breakers fill an entire page in a notebook before he would let them go - a method he insists has helped change people's behavior.

"Most people I've punished this way haven't done it again," Ji told Xinhua News Agency.