Inset: LED lights in the Pudong unisex toilet say if they are occupied or not. Photo: IC
A cleaner cleans the first unisex toilet in Pudong district Adidas Nmd XR1 Rosa España , Shanghai. The toilet, which opened on November 19 2016, World Toilet Day, includes 6 sitting toilets and 4 squat toilets. Photo: IC
It has been two years since the toilet revolution was proclaimed by China's top tourism authorities, when they announced it would improve the hygiene of public conveniences all over the country.
However, that task has proved to be easier said than done.
Situated in the city's flashy Pudong district, the first unisex toilet in Shanghai looks like it is part of a fancy hotel from the outside.
Despite this attractive appearance Hombre Adidas NMD XR1 PrimeKnit Negras Grises España , the public toilet has only been used by about 4,200 people since it came into service in November 2016, as a pilot project of the toilet revolution.
The toilet, which is open from 5 am till 9 pm every day, has been used by an average of just 34 people a day.
Noon is the busiest time for the toilet, its cleaner was quoted as saying by news portal thepaper on Tuesday.
Other than visitors who come to walk on a nearby grassy area, nearly 80 percent of its users are construction workers.
More of these facilities will be built in Shanghai in accordance with the public's enthusiasm for them, an official from the Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center was quoted as saying by thepaper.
"I felt very awkward when I went to a unisex toilet for the first time in Taiwan. It felt like boys were looking at me when I washed my hands, even though they were not," Wang, a 21-year-old college student from Northeast China's Liaoning Province, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
But Wang believes she and others like her will get used to these kinds of toilets as more people experience them.
However Hombre Pharrell x Adidas NMD Hu Trail Holi Rosa Verdes España , Zoe Sun, a 27-year-old woman who works in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, told the Global Times that "I couldn't go if I knew there was a man in the nearby toilet…even though there are partitions… and it would be disgusting when men smoke inside the toilets."
Sun said the government should just install more toilets for women instead.