Beijing is to standardize the city's toilet direction plates ahead of the Olympics, according to Beijing Youth Daily.

The plate, already in use in some places, features white male and female characters on a blue background, the paper quoted officials with Beijing's city government.

Beijing, with 5,174 public toilets, has outpaced New York, London and Tokyo and become the world's No. 1 metropolis as far as public toilets are concerned.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2008)