Train toilets no longer a nightmare story
Print Edition
Huang Xueying has nine cleaning rags and two mops in different colors, as well as several bottles of detergent, among other cleaning supplies.
Huang works on the G79 high-speed train from Beijing to the south China city of Guangzhou. The train is among thousands of trains running during the Spring Festival travel rush, which started on Thursday.
Around 390 million passenger trips are expected to be made during the 40-day travel frenzy, up 8.8 percent year on year. The world’s largest annual human migration for family reunion puts huge pressure on train workers, especially cleaners.
On older trains, often overloaded during travel rush, lavatories were often left with muddy floors and waste paper littered everywhere. Passengers would often wait rather than elbow their way to such disgusting lavatories.
The situation has changed as China has upgraded most of its trains. Newer bullet trains are equipped with vacuum not squat toilets and full-time cleaners, such as Huang.
On the eight-hour trip, Huang must check the sanitary conditions, do thorough cleaning, and note records for eight toilets in four carriages every 30 minutes.
“I take more than 22,000 steps every workday,” Huang said.
Boxes of air fresheners, and disposable toilet seat covers are installed in every toilet, as are sinks and huge mirrors. Beside the sink, there are single-use combs, liquid soap, hand cream, and plants. Toilets with disabled access and baby-care facilities are also available.
The improvements on trains are part of the broader “toilet revolution” in China.
In 2015, the National Tourism Administration began a three-year “toilet revolution”, aiming to install 33,000 new toilets and upgrade another 24,000 existing ones in scenic areas across the country to provide sufficient clean, free, well-managed toilet facilities for the public.
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