China Focus: "Flush toilet revolution" reaches rural homes

Du Linzhi learned how to use a flush toilet at the age of 77.

Before that, the woman from rural Gansu Province used the pit toilets once common in Chinese villages.

"There was no roof, only mud bricks circling a pit," said Du. "It was outdoors and cold in the winter and full of maggots in the summer. It was neither convenient nor sanitary."

China has pushed to build better, more sanitary toilets in rural areas for years as part of the nation's poverty relief efforts. Now a "flush toilet revolution" has started.

According to the National Tourism Administration, China will build or renovate 25,000 toilet facilities this year. The administration will also work to improve toilets in rural areas, where facilities are often little more than a rustic shack in a field or open pits next to pigsties.

Du's bathroom was built by her son, Gao Mingquan, at a cost of 10,000 yuan (about 1,500 U.S. dollars). It was not a small amount for a family that earns around 70,000 yuan per year. But Gao, a truck driver, decided to make the investment.

"I never thought about it before, but now that incomes are higher, I believe quality of life should also improve," Gao said.

The new bathroom is bright and spacious. Its floor is covered with tiles and the room is equipped with a flush toilet, a washstand and a water heater.

The restroom is linked to the bedrooms through hallways, just like houses in the city. Du is still adjusting to the new amenities.

"I was not used to the flush toilet at first, but now I like using the bathroom to take a shower now and then," said Du.

According to Li Xinchuan, Communist Party secretary of Du's village of Kangjiazhuang, local officials in the past mainly focused on villagers' kitchens during poverty relief inspections. Now they check for modern toilets.

The village has included sanitary toilets in its targeted poverty relief projects since last year. Now nearly one-third of village households have flush toilets.

In Zhouzhuang Village in Shandong Province, villagers are installing flush toilets at their own expense.

The village near Nishan Reservoir started to develop its rural tourism industry in 2008. It added new roads, traffic lights, clean toilets and trash cans to attract tourists from nearby cities.

"Before, kids from the city would not use the toilets -- even if it meant they had to hold it," said Feng Jinghua, Communist Party secretary of Zhouzhuang Village in Qufu City. "We've realized that nasty rural toilets will not bring us return customers."

After the village's public toilets improved, villagers started to adopt modern facilities in their homes.

Meng Xiao has spent 16,000 yuan transforming her latrine into a 20-square-meter bathroom with a flush toilet, shower and washing machine.

"The toilet at my parents' house is the old kind, and now I feel uncomfortable using it when I visit them," Meng said.

Wei Xiang, professor at the National Academy of Economic Strategy of the China Academy of Social Sciences, said toilets are a reflection of living conditions in rural China, and the "toilet revolution" shows the government is determined to fight poverty. It also shows a change in development priorities, Wei added.

"The 'revolution' reflects that the focus of development has shifted from mere speed and surface to quality of life and services," Wei said. Endi