Chaohu in East China's Anhui province has appointed 39 "toilet chiefs" to ensure high standards at all public restrooms, with Hu Qisheng, the city's Party chief, tasked with overseeing their work.

"As the city has 280,000 urban residents, we should have at least 100 public toilets, but we're still far from that goal," Hu said, adding that the city has abundant tourism resources and is receiving an increasing number of visitors.

"Clean and easily accessible public toilets are a window to a modern and civilized city. Just increasing the number of toilets is not enough - it's also important to improve the sanitation standards at the ones we already have."