Replacing dirty toilets has been put fairly high on the list of priorities in Beijing, as the city busily prepares for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Beijing announced plans to rebuild 1,000 public toilets in its suburbs this year to bring them up to modern standards.

The new renovation project will supplant an existing three-year campaign to modernize the city's public toilets. Beijing started to clean up or renovate its public toilets in 2005, replacing fetid back street privies with clean, well-maintained flush toilets.

More than 5,580 public toilets in the city were made acceptable by the end of 2006. The availability of a public toilet within a five-minute walk anywhere in the city remains a goal on the new agenda.

That the local authorities have asked some 3,000 commercial buildings to open their restrooms to the public offers the possibility of makeshift facilities.

There are actually plenty of public toilets in Beijing if you keep your eyes open. Hutong, or old alleyways, have public toilets because many residents do not have toilets in their homes, only buckets for night time and elderly use. It may help to walk down an alley if you are in search of a toilet.

Toilets in the country vary greatly. That is why the Beijing municipal government has started to rate them with stars and hand out awards based on such criteria as granite floors, remote-sensor flushes, automatic hand driers and piped-in music.

Several hutong have received a "yellow card" for not providing enough public lavatories or failing to clean up the ones they have.

The country needs to expand the revolution that makes the comfort stations comfortable in the cities to the rural areas. The public toilets in the rural regions are little more than open trenches with mud walls.

At the 2004 World Toilet Summit held in Beijing, the Ministry of Construction vowed to offer more hygienic and environmentally friendly toilets.

Dry and recycled water flush restrooms are viable options. Infrared sensors to control water flows in toilets and basins are recommended.

While the renovation projects in the cities can polish our image, the availability of toilets, even if not high quality, can improve the lives of rural residents.

(China Daily January 19, 2007)