Food stands and billboards attached to Beijing's public toilets will be torn down by October as the city pushes to improve management of the bathrooms.

"It is not proper to sell soft drinks or snacks right at the toilets," The Beijing News on Saturday quoted an unnamed source with the city's Urban Management Commission as saying.

The overhaul plan was drafted in response to complaints about toilets with poor sanitation and toilet operators turning them into commercial facilities.

The commission has ordered an immediate inspection by its district branches on the facilities and sanitation of all public toilets in the city. Operators who fail to meet sanitation standards by the end of September will have their toilet management licenses revoked. All food sales and billboards are banned.

Sources with the Beijing Environmental Sanitation Engineering Research Institute attributed the bad odor in some toilets to insufficient ventilation and the lack or inappropriate use of deodorizers.

Beijing now has more than 5,000 public toilets, and another 1,100 are scheduled to be built this year.

City authorities also plan to publish a guide to public toilets.

(Shanghai Daily August 6, 2007)