In the back streets of the Chinese capital, a new cultural revolution is gathering momentum.

A multimillion-dollar renovation of the city’s public toilets is under way.

The municipal government announced on Sunday that it would plunge more than 100 million yuan (US$12.1 million) a year into freshening up its loos in time for the city’s hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The goal set for this year is to build or rebuild 400 restrooms around the city, said Ma Kangding, an official with the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission.

“The figure is double that of last year, and the amount of investment for the first time has topped 100 million yuan (US$12 million),” said Ma, who is in charge of the project.

The focus of the toilet revolution is the traditional back lanes, or hutong, where public toilets are often criticized for offering no privacy and being little more than holes in the ground.

Ma said the new or rebuilt johns should meet standards that require them to have toilet paper, soap, hand dryers and access for the disabled.

There are about 2,800 existing public toilets in the hutong, nearly a third of the city’s total public conveniences.

The commission says that by 2008, the city will provide 4,700 public toilets and pedestrians will be within an eight-minute walk of one in business areas -- one every 500 meters.

Li Jun, a press officer with the commission, said that although a half of public toilets would be demolished in the course of ongoing housing resettlement projects, new public toilets with better sanitary conditions would be built in the new communities.

She said that in 2008, more than 90 percent of the public toilets in the four downtown districts of Beijing (Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu), where most of the hutong are concentrated, will meet the standards.

The commission is ensuring that there are sufficient facilities for men and women, while also introducing new kinds of toilet and improving management and service, said Li.

The current dearth of public toilets in the business areas has prompted the city to make its controversial call for business venues to open their toilets to the public to help those who are caught short.

(China Daily August 3, 2003)