People’s livelihood issues are no small matter. Public toilets are an important symbol of urban infrastructure and supporting services, as well as a measure of urban civilization. In recent years, Lanzhou has accelerated the management innovation of public toilets, optimized public toilet infrastructure, and polished the “new window” of urban civilization through the “public toilet revolution.”
“I can deeply feel that the quantity and quality of public toilets have been greatly improved compared to before.” citizen Yang Caibin lives in Yanchangbu Lvying Garden, and walks along the Yellow River every night. She was full of praise, “The beautiful appearance, the warm color, the unique reading service room, the entire public toilet is surrounded by trees. If you don’t look closer, you would think it is a scenic spot.”
The reporter saw in the public toilet of Renmin Road Cultural Tourism Station that there are not only ordinary men’s and women’s toilets, but also a “third toilet” for the disabled and children. The toilet is clean and tidy, with hand dryers, paper towels, children safety seats and other facilities. The spacious and bright reading service room is also equipped with small tables and sofas for citizens to rest. The staff told reporters, “The reading service room is open to the public for free. In the summer，it opens at 9:30 a.m closes at 8:30 p.m. in the winter, it closes at 10:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m. If the elderly and tourists walking nearby are tired, they will come here to have a drink, read a book and take a short break.”
Lanzhou is not only committed to upgrading and transforming public toilets in urban areas, but also focusing on creating tourist public toilets. The newly-built tourist public toilet in Mount Lan is like a “net celebrity landscape”. It has the golden eaves, bright red pillars, solemn patterns. The classical style appearance of tourism public toilets is complementary to that of Mount Lan plank road. There are all kinds of facilities in the public toilets, such as high-low hand washing table, hand sanitizer, hot water, intelligent monitoring system and child care desk. Wang Huitang, who has lived in Mount Lan for 30 years, said, “Before there were no toilets in the mountains, tourists could only urinate in the woods. Now there are tourist public toilets, which brings great convenience to the surrounding residents and tourists who come to visit.”
“The toilet is clean and fresh, and there is no peculiar smell.” Xiao Zhang, who had just walked out of the toilet, sighed sincerely. In his impression, when he mentions public toilets in tourist attractions, he thinks of “dirty messy”, no one cares about it, many people do not flush after use, and there are few toilets. The new tourist public toilets completely subverted his perception.
It is understood that Lanzhou has 644 public toilets directly managed by sanitation, 597 in the main urban area, and 47 in the suburban counties. A total of 102 urban sanitation public toilets were newly built, renovated and expanded this year. According to Wang Xia, deputy head of the Publicity Section of Lanzhou Urban Management Committee, there are 1406 public toilets in Lanzhou under the cloud platform management of urban public toilets, including 644 public toilets directly under the management of environmental sanitation. 1450 pairs of simple and eye-catching public toilet guidance signs are set up in the main and secondary roads of the city to facilitate the public to seek toilets. According to the design principle of “one toilet, one scene”, Wang Xia said, “not only the exterior design is fashionable, but also the interior decoration is elegant, which brings a new visual experience to the public.”