China pledges another three years of ‘toilet revolution’ to boost tourism

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A vendor takes a nap beside a public ‘bomb-proof’ toilet in Beijing’s Zhongguancun ‘Silicon Valley’ area, 06 September 2006. It was reported 06 September that the toilet, which has received a fair amount of interest in the Chinese and Hong Kong press, cost over 800,000 yuan (100,000 USD), has 30cm (10 inch) thick walls and features automatic flushing and sterilising. According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, who quoted a top city criminal investigator, the toilet could be strong enough to protect users from a bomb blast.

China announced on Sunday plans to build and upgrade 64,000 public toilets between 2018 to 2020 as part of its “toilet revolution” aimed at boosting tourism and lifting the sector’s contribution to economic growth.

China has been keen to develop and expand services industries to move away from debt-fuelled and investment-driven growth, while offsetting the impact of persistently weak global demand for its exports.

Particularly, it has been looking at the emerging tourism industry, pledging late last year 2 trillion yuan ($290 billion)in investment which it hopes will help lift the sector’s contribution to annual economic growth. [

While three years of “toilet revolution” have led to “significant achievements”, according to the China National Tourism Administration (CNTA), the booming industry’s prospects are clouded by wide-spread complaints about toilet hygiene levels at China’s tourist sites.

Since 2015, China has poured 1.04 billion yuan into building and renovating 68,000 toilets, far exceeding its three-year goal of 57,000, state news agency Xinhua said.

“The toilet revolution … is an urgent and necessary measure to transform and upgrade our tourism industry,” CNTA director Li Jinzao was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Under the new initiative, China will have 47,000 toilets built and 17,000 existing ones refurbished in the next three years, Xinhua said.