A pilot public toilet reform ended recently in Xicheng District, Beijing, showcasing air conditioning for added comfort and water-saving high tech used to remove unwanted smells.

A public toilet after the pilot reform in Xicheng District, Beijing (Photo/People’s Daily Online)

This reform is just a miniature of Beijing’s public toilet improvement project. According to statistics, there are now 19,008 public toilets throughout Beijing. A "toilet reform" was launched in Beijing after the 13th Five-Year Plan, spreading from urban to rural areas. The reform aims to develop and enhance the quality of public toilets, rewriting the embarrassing history of “dirty, bad, few and far between."

Zhou Xuesheng, director of the Environmental Sanitation Management Division under Beijing Municipal Commission of City Management, said, “Our goal is that by 2020, the up-to-standard rate of Beijing public toilets will be 100 percent.”

Right now, all districts are upgrading their public toilets by installing smell-removing facilities and adopting face recognition technology, intended to improve their overall quality.

It's true that Beijing, as an international metropolis, is becoming increasingly beautiful thanks to this type of reform.

Air conditioning has been installed in the public toilets to make them more comfortable. (Photo/People’s Daily Online)