Changsha launches public toilet search service on Baidu Maps

What do you do when you're walking down the street and suddenly you need to go? Ask someone for help? Not anymore. In Kaifu district, Changsha, you can just open Baidu Maps and find the nearest toilet.

In Kaifu district, the first public toilet search service was introduced on Baidu Maps, covering 121 existing public toilets in the district. People who can't hold it can search on mobile phones and find the closest one in seconds.

This year, Kaifu district will invest 44.01 million yuan ($6.39 million) in building and upgrading 139 public toilets, all of which are expected to be completed in September. According to requirements, the service radius in downtown and suburb will not exceed 300 meters and 500 meters, respectively.

A series of high-tech and humanized facilities will make public toilets more convenient for citizens of Kaifu district, such as mother-and-baby facilities, phone chargers, and toilet paper machines.

The toilet paper machines will allow people to obtain toilet paper by scanning their face. By standing in the designated area and facing the screen, the toilet paper will come out automatically.

A manager of Xifeng road public toilets said that in order to prevent waste, people can only receive toilet paper three times a day per toilet, as facial recognition data will be memorized.

"The facilities are even better than toilets in starred hotels!" said Cao Wei, a resident of Kaifu district.