Actions for a change

In April 2015, President Xi Jinping called for the public's attention to a "toilet revolution" for China's tourism industry.

Between 2015 and 2017, 1.64 billion yuan had been invested to install or renovate over 70,000 toilets at tourist sites, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

The national toilet revolution campaign was then expanded to encompass urban public toilets and rural private toilets.

In late 2017, the ministry launched a three-year action plan to build and renovate 64,000 Chinese toilets by 2020.

All this has offered momentum for domestic sanitaryware makers. Among them, Arrow built "family toilets"－equipped with safety equipment for kids and the elderly－at major Chinese scenic spots in the past few years. And Huida jumped on the bandwagon by initiating a plan to build and upgrade rural toilets in 1,000 counties and 10,000 towns nationwide.

Wang says there's big potential in rural sales. "The nationwide mass infrastructure development, especially in the western part of the country, and surging demand for prefabricated bathroom pods also mean more opportunities for sanitaryware."

Prefabricated bathroom pods for new buildings are in higher demand, too, due to its environment-friendly and simple installation features－two workers can assemble a whole bathroom in four hours.

According to the report, the market for such bathroom pods reached 7.27 billion yuan last year, and 15 percent of the new buildings nationwide will be fitted with them this year.

The market value of the pods will surpass 10 billion yuan this year and hit 17.3 billion yuan in 2021.

China's public health industry will double from the present 8 trillion yuan by the end of 2030, says finance writer Wu Xiaobo.

Contact the writer at yangfeiyue@chinadaily.com.cn