Big lake, big need, big investment

XINING - A toilet revolution has begun at Qinghai Lake, a popular tourist destination in Qinghai province. So far this year, the scenic area has received 11.9 million yuan ($1.8 million) in investment to install or upgrade toilets for tourists, according to the lake's management bureau.

A portion of the investment - 1.28 million yuan - has been used to upgrade 32 toilets around the lake, and the rest is being used to install 13 environmentally friendly toilets and 11 unisex ones, said Zhang Shengxiang, head of business management for the company that manages Qinghai Lake's tourism investment and development.

Qinghai Lake is China's largest inland lake and biggest saltwater lake. As a national tourist attraction, it had received 3.2 million tourists from home and abroad as of mid-October, up 77 percent year-on-year.