This Day, That Year

Item from Nov 2, 1996, in China Daily: A woman puts clothes into a coin-operated washing machine in a self-service laundry on Sichuan Road in Shanghai. China's first coin-operated laundry received a warm welcome from residents.

As living standards improve in China, people are increasingly turning to professional laundry services. As a result, the country's laundry and dry-cleaning market is developing rapidly.

In 1997, Fornet Laundry Co, opened the first outlet in Xidan, a business area in Beijing, bringing the French laundry system of "front store and back factory" to China. Now it has more than 1,400 stores nationwide.