A group of young Chinese recently launched a campaign to "occupy" men's public toilets, calling for more toilet stalls for women in Chinese cities.

On Feb. 19, seven volunteers in their 20s gathered outside a men's public toilet in Yuexiu Park, a local landmark in the city of Guangzhou in south China's Guangdong province.

They held up a brightly-colored banner declaring "more convenience for women, more gender equality" and took turns spending three minutes "occupying" the public toilet to prevent men from using it, spending two hours at the site in total.

"We gathered here not to forcibly stop men from using their toilet, but to arouse consciousness on gender equality in both women and men," said Li Maizi, a female university student and leader of the activists.

"Our final appeal is to influence state legislation in order to create a reasonable ratio for male and female public toilet space by providing more toilets for women," Li said, adding that unisex toilets could also be considered.

Most public restrooms in China feature the same number of stalls in both men and women's restrooms, despite the fact that it takes women about three times longer to use the bathroom, creating unequal distribution, Li said.

The stunt was applauded by many passersby, both male and female, with some women volunteering to join the campaign on the spot.

"A few of the men who were stopped outside the 'occupied' toilet expressed a severe need for the toilet. However, most of them acknowledged the campaign after we explained it to them," said Wei Yibin, the campaign's only male volunteer.

Wei and his girlfriend Zheng Datu, another volunteer, spent their Valentine's Day this year scouting out a suitable location for the protest.

News of the protest quickly spread to Sina Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging site. Although some netizens have derided the protest as a form of performance art, Li said that their actions have already shown real results.

"To our great cheer, the urban management commission of Guangzhou gave us a positive response on their official microblog on Thursday," Li said, adding that Guangzhou is expected to draft a local legislation to increase the male-female public restroom space ratio to 1:1.5.

A more practical ratio for male-female public restroom space will be encouraged for urban construction, according to the "Women's Development Plan (2011-2020)" issued by the government of central China's Henan province on Thursday.

Li said follow-up protests will be held simultaneously in the cities of Shenzhen and Beijing on Feb. 26.

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