The city will build hundreds of new wet markets and public toilets by 2020 to ensure a market or bathroom is located within a five minute walk of any downtown location, the Shanghai Urban Planning Administrative Bureau announced yesterday.

Many of the new facilities will be constructed in Pudong and between the Inner and Outer Ring Roads, areas that lack enough markets and public toilets at present.

The bureau said it is accepting advice from local residents about where new markets and toilets should be set up. Suggestions can be e-mailed to the bureau at: megyan@hotmail.com.

"We consider public toilets and wet markets to be two of the most important facilities for locals and visitors everyday convenience," bureau spokesperson Tang Zhiping said at a news conference yesterday.

Yu sijia, a senior engineer with the bureau who is in charge of the project, said the city has worked out a preliminary plan that calls for the construction of more than 240 wet markets and 800 public toilets within the Outer Ring Road by 2020.

The eventual goal is to ensure there is at least one wet market with a 500 meter radius of any downtown location, and at least one public toilet within a 300 meter radius.

Currently, there are more than 500 wet markets and 1,600 public toilets in downtown Shanghai, but about 30 percent of downtown areas lack one or both of the facilities.

Yu said most of the new wet markets will be built indoors and cover 1,500 to 2,000 square meters. Each new market will also include adequate space for parking cars and bicycles.

Many of the new toilets will be built in conjunction with future subway stations and gas stations.

"At least one toilet will be built at each of the city's 300-plus subway stations," Yu said, noting that two or three toilets will be built at major transfer hubs along the Metro line.

The bureau has studied the way Paris built public toilets as part of its subway system and plans to emulate parts of that plan, said Yu.

The bureau didn't say how much it will cost to build the new markets and bathrooms.

Yu said new wet markets are planned for several residential complexes, including the New Jiangwan Township in northern Yangpu District and Lianyang Community near the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.

(Shanghai Daily August 31, 2005)