China’s High-Tech Tool to Fight Toilet Paper Bandits
According to a China Radio International report, the Temple of Heaven Park has supplied toilet paper
in its public toilets for the last 10 years, but found that supplies were quickly exhausted.
Most public restrooms in China do not provide any toilet paper, while others provide a common roll for visitors to use.
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZMARCH 20, 2017
BEIJING — The toilet paper thieves of the Temple of Heaven Park were an elusive bunch.
Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for
three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length.
Now the authorities in Beijing are fighting back, going so far as to install high-tech toilet
paper dispensers equipped with facial recognition software in several restrooms.
But hidden in their oversize shopping bags and backpacks was a secret: sheet upon
sheet of crumpled toilet paper, plucked surreptitiously from public restrooms.
