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End of the chamber-pot era
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Shanghai has prioritized improving residents’ livelihoods, with living conditions a top priority. Its 2025 housing initiative tackled one of the city’s most long-standing urban issues: eradicating “chamber-pot households” in old lane communities.
Over the past two years, culminating in 2025, the final 6,493 households lacking private toilets have been renovated or rebuilt. The campaign required tailored solutions balancing heritage preservation, engineering constraints and community needs. Districts employed diverse approaches: full-block reconstructions, modular bathroom installations or repurposing unused public spaces into shared facilities.
Final pushes in Huangpu, Hongkou and Yangpu districts capped a decades-long initiative dating back to major old-housing renewal in the 1990s. Ending the chamber-pot era aligns Shanghai’s last remaining aging neighborhoods with its broader urban benchmarks.
For many families, the change means more than convenience. It signals equal access to basic urban services. For the city, it underscores its commitment to people-centered development and long-term liveability.
This milestone also allows urban planners to shift focus to the next phase: developing age-friendly communities, enhancing public spaces, and retrofitting older buildings for energy efficiency and climate resilience.
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