当前位置: Language Tips> 新闻播报

New app directs users to Shanghai restrooms

中国日报网 2013-03-20 10:21

分享到

 

Get Flash Player

Download

A new smartphone application aims to offer help to Shanghai residents and visitors who need to find a toilet.

Shanghai Toilet Guide will allow users to locate the closest of the city's 8,000 public restrooms.

Using GPS software, the app plots the quickest route to a restroom, its opening and closing time and the number of squat and Western-style toilets it has. It can even tell the user whether stalls have toilet paper.

Mobile media developer Nanjing Aixiyou Network Science & Technology said the program is a more accurate version of Ohbaba, an app the company launched in 2011 that covered 20 cities and attracted more than 200,000 users.

"Data on Ohbaba came from ordinance companies, our fieldwork and user submissions, but the source of this new app has come from the Shanghai government, so it should be more accurate," company spokesman Qian Jing said.

The guide will be officially launched in May, but a free-trial version is available for Apple and Android devices now.

The app is available only in Chinese, and according to Qian, that will not change anytime soon. "There's no need," she said Tuesday, although news website Eastday recently reported that features will be updated depending on responses to the trial.

Chen Weiming, who has driven for Dazhong Taxi Co for more than a decade, predicted that the app will be popular with cabbies.

"I once drove more than 10 km home to use my toilet after dropping a fare because I couldn't find a public one," Chen said. "The situation is worse in suburban areas."

Ten years ago, taxi drivers in Shanghai relied on copies of a handmade map of public restrooms, drawn up by more than 30 cabbies.

Chen said the app will be handy, but he urged developers to add parking information, as he has received tickets for illegally parking while using public restrooms.

China's first modern public toilet was introduced in 1864 on Shanghai's Nanjing Road, which today is the city's most prosperous shopping area.

Yet many residents still complain that hygiene standards leave a lot to be desired.

Davina de Smet, of Belgium, said she is unlikely to use the Shanghai Toilet Guide app because she avoids public restrooms.

"They are hard to find and sometimes there's no toilet paper," she said, adding that she tries to use bathrooms in fast-food restaurants or shopping malls

Questions:

1. How can people in Shanghai find public toilets?

2. How many public restrooms are there in Shanghai?

3. Who is most likely to use the app?

Answers:

1. By using a new smartphone application.

2. 8,000.

3. Taxi drivers.

(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)

New app directs users to Shanghai restrooms

About the broadcaster:

New app directs users to Shanghai restrooms

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
热搜词
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn