Li Wen (李文) had heard about the turbo strength flush power and the lily scented soap. He knew about the stalls equipped with personal television screens and Wi-Fi, the soothing cello soundtrack and the windows lined with aloe vera plants.
However, 39-year-old Li, a salesman, was skeptical when he set foot in the new public toilet at the corner of Fuqian Square in Fangshan, a district in southwest Beijing.
“What was wrong with the old one?” he said. “The government has too much money and does not know how to spend it.”
Modern technology has changed nearly every facet of life in China in recent years, turning backwoods precincts into bustling cities and bringing cellphones to more than a billion people. However, public restrooms in many areas have remained largely unchanged, equipped with the same squat toilets and concrete pits that Chinese people have used for generations.
As the government seeks to improve sanitation and reduce environmental waste across the country, it is planning a major overhaul of public toilets. Over the next three years, it will build or renovate 57,000 restrooms, including some that will resemble the high-tech facility in Fangshan, the first of its kind in China.
The idea has won praise from many residents who have long deplored the squalid, crumbling condition of many restrooms. However, it has also brought criticism from those who say high-end toilets are a waste of resources.
“It is just a toilet,” said Lei Junying (雷俊英), 74, a retired farmer who lives in Fangshan. “Why do they have to make it such a nice one? The government puts out its hands and asks people to pay taxes. Why do they not donate that money to poor neighborhoods instead?”
The restroom in Fangshan, which includes a separate room with vending machines and an ATM, as well as charging stations for electric cars, has quickly become a popular stop. Every hour, dozens of people visit, sometimes staying to watch a video montage promoting environmental protection.
“Even the flush sounds different,” said Zhou Wang (周旺), 25, a driver from Beijing. “Maybe it will help bring more foreign visitors. They think we are backwards because of our toilets.”
The restroom in Fangshan is designed to conserve water by recycling wastewater from sinks to flush toilets. In addition to squat toilets, it offers several sitting toilets and dividers between the stalls, features that are not standard in Chinese public toilets.
However, it has maintained some Chinese characteristics, including a communal roll of toilet paper at the entrance and a separate bin for used toilet paper.
China has improved its toilets significantly in recent years, upgrading facilities for 593 million people between 1990 and 2010, according to the WHO. However, it says that the challenges are acute in poorer areas, and 14 million people still defecate in the open.
Chinese officials have said they plan to build more toilets like the one in Fangshan in other suburban and rural areas. The aim is to build “beautiful cities and livable homelands,” according to China.com.cn, a state-run news Web site.
Lu Suisheng (陸穗生), 69, a former teacher from Inner Mongolia, visited the toilet several times during a recent trip to Fangshan to see his son. He said it would help encourage people to take better care of the environment in China.
“Change is certainly needed,” he said. “In some Chinese toilets, people need to step on bricks to avoid stepping on dirty areas. How can you use toilets like that?”
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
RELATIONS: Cultural spats, such as China’s claims over the origins of kimchi, have soured public opinion in South Korea against Beijing over the past few years Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday met South Korean counterpart Lee Jae-myung, after taking center stage at an Asian summit in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s departure. The talks on the sidelines of the APEC gathering came the final day of Xi’s first trip to South Korea in more than a decade, and a day after his meeting with the Canadian prime minister that was a reset of the nations’ damaged ties. Trump had flown to South Korea for the summit, but promptly jetted home on Thursday after sealing a trade war pause with Xi, with the two
RSS