Big lake, big need, big investment

XINING — A toilet revolution has begun at Qinghai Lake, a popular tourist destination in Qinghai province. So far this year, the scenic area has received 11.9 million yuan ($1.8 million) in investment to install or upgrade toilets for tourists, according to the lake’s management bureau.

A portion of the investment — 1.28 million yuan — has been used to upgrade 32 toilets around the lake, and the rest is being used to install 13 environmentally friendly toilets and 11 unisex ones, said Zhang Shengxiang, head of business management for the company that manages Qinghai Lake’s tourism investment and development.

Qinghai Lake is China’s largest inland lake and biggest saltwater lake. As a national tourist attraction, it had received 3.2 million tourists from home and abroad as of mid-October, up 77 percent year-on-year.

But visitors have complained about the lack of toilets in the area. In May, the area was criticized by the government for the problem.

The situation is improving. The toilets are clean and tidy now, equipped with handwashing gel, tissues and hand dryers. Unisex toilets have extra baby seats and safety handrails.

China plans to install or upgrade 64,000 toilets at tourist destinations from 2018 to 2020 in an effort to remove a major nuisance for travelers and develop domestic tourism.

This comes on the heels of the three-year “toilet revolution” launched in 2015, which saw more than 20 billion yuan invested in installing or renovating 68,000 toilets at tourist sites, exceeding the target of 57,000.

WANG HAOFEI / XINHUA Quan Decheng, a villager in Yanbian, Jilin province, uses a washing machine in his bathroom on Friday. The so-called toilet revolution helped 210 families in the village get clean indoor flush toilets.