The Times, 5 March

Attendants sit at the entrance of a public lavatory shaped like an insect as official in the Chinese capital said that it had more public convenience than any other city in the world. The ‘toilet revolution’ has swept the city since it was awarded the Olympic Games – ending thousands of years of poor sanitation. The city’s 5,174 public toilets gave it the No1 ranking as it prepares to host the Games in six months’ time, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. This is a higher number than in New York, London, or Tokyo.