China is quickly becoming one of the world's most important economic centers. This means more people from the West and places like Japan and South Korea are coming to the Communist country. But until recently, the standard of public bathrooms in China and the manner in which they were used was very different to what people from those other countries were used to. One visitor said the toilet situation was a "disaster" and some bathrooms didn't even have doors. The shocked reactions were becoming a problem, so in 2015, President Xi Jinping ordered a "toilet revolution," according to the South China Morning Post.
This was also meant to help local quality of life. Even in large cities people sometimes had trouble finding places to go when they needed to. NPR reports the revolution involved spending $3 billion to build or renovate 68,000 public toilets in three years, with 70,000 more planned. Some cities went a bit overboard and built luxurious public bathrooms with marble, sound systems, Wi-Fi, ATMs, newsstands, and electric-vehicle charging stations. In order to stop people stealing toilet paper, some bathrooms use facial recognition before giving you two feet of TP. It got so over the top the government had to warn certain local governments to stop wasting money.
But the toilet revolution continues, especially in rural areas. Xinhua Net says one region of China has a goal to rebuild toilets for 150,000 rural houses in 2019, as well as many new public bathrooms.
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