Beijing to clean up smelly toilets

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital Beijing, trying to flush away its reputation for primitive public toilets, plans to boost investment to build more lavatories and keep them stocked with toilet paper, the China Daily says.


The city government, trying to polish its image as it gears up to host the 2008 Olympic Games, pledged to invest more than 100 million yuan (6 million pounds) a year into modernising its latrine infrastructure, the newspaper said on Tuesday.


Its first item of business was to build or renovate 400 public toilets around the city, mainly in its "hutongs", the winding back alleys that, for all their historic charm, are infamous for smelly toilets that often amount to little more than open holes.


Beijing has waged campaigns in the past to clean up its public restrooms, including adding high-tech, self-cleaning toilets near tourist sites like the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, and adopting a five-star system to rate cleanliness and service.


Under the new campaign, lavatories must be equipped with toilet paper, soap, hand dryers and access for disabled people, it quoted Ma Kangding, an official with the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission, as saying.


A commission plan called for 4,700 public washrooms by 2008, with business areas boasting one every 500 metres, the newspaper said.