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Associated Press

If you want to do more business, watch television, buy a can of drink, or help your young child with potty training - all while visiting a public toilet in China, then help is now at hand.
“Innovation” is the buzzword of the moment in Beijing, with the government putting special emphasis on connecting every part of life to the web to help boost the economy and create jobs.
Now, even the humble public toilet is being prepared for what authorities call the “Internet Plus” era.
In time Thursday’s World Toilet Day, Beijing put on display a prototype public toilet that bears little resemblance - in sight or smell - to the much criticised dirty, unhygienic toilets that many residents and visitors have endured in the Chinese capital.
Read more: The long wait is over: Chinese ‘revo-loo-tion’ means people can use tourist-site toilets within 10 minutes

Resembling a bright, shiny convenience store, the new facilities feature services including an automatic cash machine, a lounge with vending machines, a computerised telephone machine for paying utility bills, plus an electric-car charging outpost and recycling bins for paper and plastic bottles.
Relaxing, Enya-style songs were played inside for ambience.
Yet that is what is on offer even before you reach the toilet cubicles.
Each one is equipped with a flat-screen television. The specially designed, environmentally conscious toilets use sink waste water for flushing, and even separate urine and faeces to help reduce the use of water by 90 per cent, designers claim.
The Fangshan demonstration toilet focuses on a high level of service, with an attendant cleaning each toilet after use.

People have the choice of using traditional squat toilets or Western-style sit-down toilets, and even a family toilet offers a changing table, a high chair when children can sit while their parents are using the toilet and even a mini-toilet for toddlers that are being potty trained.
However, there are aspects of the toilet that foreigners might find less than cutting-edge.
For example, people still have to pull toilet paper from a common roll upon entering the toilet building, rather than having toilet rolls in each cubicle, which means people have to calculate how much paper they think they will need.

The “5th Space” public toilet in Beijing’s southern district of Fangshan is intended to be the first of many such facilities across the country, said an employee at the state-run Beijing Environmental Health Group.
Planners expect about 2,000 visitors a day at the Fangshan toilet, with the waste stored on-site in treatment tanks and then transported away each week by sewage management vehicles.
China’s tourism bureau said on Thursday that it planned to install 57,000 new public toilets across the nation in the next three years, although only a handful were likely to be as hi-tech as the one at Fangshan.

However, Beijing Environmental Health Group hopes to turn the “Internet Plus” toilets into business platforms, funding them with investment from e-commerce providers, who can use them as hubs to entice people to order products online and then deliver them there, in the same way that Amazon’s locker programme allows people to collect parcels from chosen pick-up points.
The higher level of staffing required to look after the hi-tech toilets would also create service jobs, the company’s employee said.
“Solving the human waste problem for 1.3 billion people is a major goal for the Chinese government,” said the employee, who refused to give his name because he was not sure he had permission to give media interviews.
“It would be a major breakthrough for the development.”
 
He said the company’s designers had thought of many different types of the 5th Space toilets, some with solar panels and others - especially for rural areas - where human waste could be treated on-site and then used as a fertiliser.
Many people trying out the new toilets in Fangshan on Thursday said they were impressed.
“It’s pretty good,” said Wu Guangxian, 68.
However, he was not sure if the hi-tech amenities would stand the test of time.
“I think they need to install surveillance cameras here,” he said. “Otherwise, children might come and destroy this place.”
In September China National Tourism Administration revealed new plans for a “toilet revo-loo-tion” around the nation so that tourists queuing to use public conveniences at the mainland’s top attractions would not have to wait in line for more than 10 minutes.
All mainland tourist sites classified as 3A or above – the third highest ranking in a five-tier system rated according to the attraction’s importance – will undergo one month of refurbishment to boost hygiene standards, The Beijing Times reported.
The reforms will also see improvements in toilets at restaurants, accommodation, shopping centres and car parks at tourist sites.
Last February, Li Jinzao, director of the tourism administration said that many existing toilets in China were “dirty, messy, substandard and insufficient” and had affected the development and reputation of the nation’s tourism industry.


China's next revo-loo-tion: Beijing offers glimpse of public toilet offering TV, snacks, cash machines ... and potty training

The new hi-tech family toilet in Beijing has a changing place for parents with babies, and a mini toilet for children who are still being potty-trained, alongside a full-sized version for parents. Photo: AFP

The company that built the trial toilet building in Beijing hopes it will attract interest across the country. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The new toilet building even offers snacks and drinks to users. Photo: SCMP Pictures

People using the toilet building can choose between traditional squat toilets or Western-style sit-down toilets - both offering flat-screen television viewing. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The hi-tech Beijing public toilet has cash machines, snacks and even charging points for electric vehicles, as well as both squat and sit-down toilets. Photo: SCMP Pictures

The new hi-tech family toilet in Beijing has a changing place for parents with babies, and a mini toilet for children who are still being potty-trained, alongside a full-sized version for parents. Photo: SCMP Pictures

It may not be as comfortable as sitting down while watching TV, bu everyone will be able to enjoy the flat-screen viewing. Photo: AFP

The long wait is over: Chinese ‘revo-loo-tion’ means people can use tourist-site toilets within 10 minutes

Long queues of people waiting to use the toilet at Chinese tourist attractions should soon be a thing of the past, says  the nation's tourism authority. Photo: Xinhua

Men caught short as Chinese officials cut toilet queues for women during busy National Day holiday

Men queue up to use the toilet at Beijing's Forbidden City during the current National Day holiday. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Men queue up outside the public conveniences at Beijing's Forbidden City after officials switched their temporary toilets for the use only of women. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Smelly toilets not a cool novelty anymore: How China is trying to attract more foreign tourists

After three consecutive years of declining inbound tourist numbers, China is launching a range of measures to attract overseas travellers. Photo: AFP

Foreign visitors cycle along the ancient city wall in Xi'an. Photo: AFP

China's tourism industry is geared towards group tours. Photo: Xinhua

Tourists and residents push a giant prayer wheel in the ancient town of Dukezong in Shangri-la county, Deqen Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan Province. Photo: Xinhua

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China's next revo-loo-tion: Beijing offers glimpse of public toilet offering TV, snacks, cash machines ... and potty training

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