'Toilet revolution' comes to China's largest lake

XINING -- A toilet revolution has begun at Qinghai Lake, a famous tourist destination in Northwest China's Qinghai province.

So far this year, the scenic area has received 11.92 million yuan ($1.81 million) in investment to help install or upgrade toilets for tourists, according to the lake's management bureau.

A portion of the investment, worth 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 toilets, said Zhang Shengxiang, head of the business management department of the Qinghai Lake tourism company, which is in charge of the area'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 millions 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 its toilet problem.

However, the situation is improving. The toilets are clean and tidy now, equipped with hand washing gel, tissue and hand dryers. Unisex toilets have extra baby seats, safety handrails and speakers.

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 a three-year "toilet revolution" launched in 2015, which saw over 20 billion yuan invested in installing or renovating 68,000 toilets at tourist sites, exceeding the target of 57,000 toilets.