Shenzhen to provide more toilets for women

The Shenzhen government issued a new rule to increase the number of public toilets for women.

An Internet poll showed that more than 90 percent of those surveyed applauded the decision but some suggested that unisex toilets would be fairer, according to sznews.com.

The new rule, issued by the city's Urban Planning Land and Resources Commission, will go into effect on Aug 1 and will provide compulsory guidance to the architectural design of the city's new buildings for the next three years.

According to the rule, the ratio of men's toilets to women's toilets will be set at one to two or one to three. That rule will be applied to new facilities in commercial streets, restaurants, parks and tourist spots.

An ongoing poll conducted by sznews.com indicates that about 68 percent of correspondents said they had to wait for two to 10 minutes in a public toilet line.

The shopping mall become people's first choice to answer the call of nature, but it was also where they suffered the longest wait times, according to the poll.

Roughly 93 percent of respondents applauded the new rule while roughly 92 percent said existing facilities need to be upgraded to meet the new standards.

Some men voiced their dissatisfactions in online forums that men may have to wait for toilets in the future. They suggest that the best way to solve the problem is to build unisex public toilets.