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Mark O'Neill

The smell hits you even on the platform and draws your eye away from the railing, with four mops draped over it, that leads down the subway tunnel.

  Go round the corner and through the open door: inside, the six bowls are blocked up with you know what.

  'Who wants to linger in a place like this?,' said Liu Qiang, dipping his hands beneath the tap after relieving himself and hurrying out.

  'They have done no renovations here since the station opened in 1969. No-one can be bothered. The smell is awful.'   Welcome to Nanlishi Road subway station, 100 metres below the main east-west thoroughfare in western Beijing, which is still waiting for the coming of the 'toilet revolution'.

  On the platform, lady staff in blue-green uniforms are swabbing the floor with large mops.

   Other are selling books, magazines and newspapers from a large stall.

  'Yes, some of the passengers complain about the toilets,' one of them said, briefly putting down her novel.

  'It has been the same way since the station opened. Maybe it will be renovated. That is something you should ask the bosses.'   Then she turns back to the novel - much more interesting.

  Do not despair. Hang on for just one stop, to Fuxingmen station.

   Get off the train there, walk down the platform and meet Madame Wang, waiting for you in a small glass booth, wearing a smart blue uniform and her face carying a big smile.

  The toilet here is post-revolutionary - gleaming white tiles, spick and clean, with all the bowls full of water and ready for use.

   The only downside is the entrance fee - 30 fen (about 28 HK cents).

  'Some people complain about the money,' said Madame Wang, 50, who has recently taken up her post as minder and cleaner of the ladies toilet after being laid off from a money-losing state factory.

  'They get used to the idea. You pay and get a better service. The toilets that are free have not been renovated, and no-one takes care of them. It is the same story here as above ground, where we used to have such bad toilets, until they were redone and people started to pay.'   One client, exchanging his 30 fen for a single piece of crinkly white paper, said: 'In history, we Chinese have always neglected toilets. In rural homes, the toilet is in the furthest corner from the main entrance. It is the least important place. This way of thinking lingers on today.'   The renovation of the Fuxingmen station facility is part of a two-year programme started in 1996 to upgrade all the toilets on Beijing's two-line subway network.

   It is also part of the city government's attempt to push the system into the market and off the subsidy rolls.

  In late 1995, the price of a single-journey fare quadrupled to two yuan, and the network stopped issuing new monthly tickets, which cost 40 yuan.

  It is also increasing income from other sources.

  The walls of the stations and the carriages are lined with advertisements, for Cadbury's chocolate, Persil detergent, Evian water, Dutch Lady milk, Texwood jeans, Lux and Kao shampoo, Pizza Hut, China Telecom, Sanyo, Sony, Canon and the Beijing Talent Centre.

  The stations have stalls selling books and magazines as well as snacks and drinks, with microwave ovens on hand to offer you a hot hamburger.

   All these changes are not enough to put the system into the black. An official of the subway company said shortage of money was a chronic problem, and the reason for the poor state of the toilets as well as many other things.

  'We had a lot of complaints from passengers about the toilets,' she said. 'We spent one million yuan on them in 1996. We aim to renovate all of them. The problem is lack of money.

  'You may think maintenance of an underground toilet costs the same as one above ground, but it does not.

  'All the waste has to be moved to the ground level.'   'It all costs money, and the city government is short of cash.'   It is this shortage that is holding up construction of the subway's third line, which is due to run below the city's main east-west thoroughfare to suburban Tongxian.

  The bill for this comes to more than 200 million yuan a kilometre and is rising as labour and raw material costs increase.

  Tunnelling on some of the line has been completed, but there is no date for completion.

  So the system, which carries about one million people a day, still needs an annual subsidy from the city government, calculated according to the number of passengers and safety record.

  Meanwhile, the gridlock above ground increases.

  In 1985 Beijing had 160,000 cars. Now it has more than 1.1 million, competing fiercely with eight million bicycles for road space that cannot keep pace with the growth in traffic.

  Subway passengers agree that the underground is faster and more convenient than the bus and lament the fact the system has only two lines.

  So where is the money?   The evidence of wealth is everywhere in Beijing - new luxury skyscrapers and shopping centres, Mercedes, Lexuses and BMWs, meals, costing thousands of yuan, where it is good manners to leave many of the dishes uneaten.

  Corporate wealth and public poverty - the dilemma of 'Socialist' China as it is in the capitalist West.



Scents and sensibilities remain low on subway priority list