Beijing, with more than 5,000 public toilets built and renovated, has become the world's No. 1 metropolis with public toilets concerned, according to a municipal government official Tuesday.

Lu Haijun, director of the Beijing Municipal Administration Commission, has said that with 5,174 public toilets, Beijing has already outpaced New York, London and Tokyo in the number of public toilets.

He also notes that the land used for rubbish dumping has expanded to more than 1,300 hectares in Beijing, and will expand by an annual 33.3 hectares if at the present speed.

"We have to use the dumping sites for 2020 in advance, because we can hardly find any places in suburb Beijing," says Lu.

Beijing produces about 1,600 tons of garbage every day, meaning that every resident "contributes" one kilogram daily, almost equaling that of the developed countries.

Lu notes that Beijing is now capable of treating all the urban refuse, and 76 percent of its suburban refuse.

Beijing will issue regulations to curb excessive packing, he says.

He also discloses that Beijing will facelift its old buildings by painting the outside walls. The municipality will facelift more than 8,000 buildings this year after last year's 12,000.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 5, 2008)