On Feb 11, the Bureau of City Appearance, Environment and Sanitation of Guangzhou Municipality announced that the public toilets in the districts of Yuexiu, Haizhu, Liwan and Tianhe would be free of charge beginning Feb 12. So far, 87% of Guangzhou's public toilets have become free of charge. The remaining ones that still charge fees are in the countryside or suburban areas.

According to Lv Zhiyi, director of the Bureau, the public was charged for the maintenance cost of the toilets such as water, electricity, staff and cleaning. From now on, the maintenance cost of the public toilets will be shared by the city government and the district administration. The public will no longer be charged for using public toilets in the mentioned districts.

The public toilets in Guangzhou started to charge fees in 1989 and 1990. The first public toilets to charge fees were the two toilets by the Guangzhou Train Station. With the approval of the pricing authorities, the public toilets in the districts of Liwan, Yuexiu, Tianhe and Haizhu started to charge fees in 1992 and 1993.

Editor: Yan