This Day, That Year

Item from Dec 13, 1988, in China Daily: A public toilet in downtown Beijing is carpeted. This is part of Beijing’s efforts to improve the capital’s dirty and smelly public toilets, the target of constant complaints from residents and foreign tourists.

To improve hygiene and boost tourism, authorities launched a campaign to upgrade public toilets in 2015.

As of October, the country has installed or upgraded 68,000 bathrooms at tourist destinations. To expand the plan nationwide, from tourism spots to cities and rural backwaters, another 64,000 toilets will be renovated from 2018 to 2020, according to the China National Tourism Administration.

President Xi Jinping has long stressed the importance of sanitary conditions in enhancing the quality of the tourism industry.

While the country has rich tourism resources, unhygienic toilet facilities at tourist sites have long been a big put-off for visitors.

The government predicted domestic travelers would make

6.4 billion trips annually by 2020, up from

4.4 billion in 2016, while the number of trips to China by overseas travelers is set to rise to 150 million, from 138 million last year.

Besides improving the travel experience, the construction of clean toilets is also an important part of pushing urban and rural civilization, Xi said.

According to official figures, the ratio of clean toilets in the countryside rose from 71.7 percent in 2012 to 80.4 percent in 2016, significantly improving rural sanitation conditions.