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For the uninitiated, entering a public lavatory in China can be a horrifying experience. In smaller cities, or the countryside, the sight of an open trench filled with excrement, coupled with a suffocating stench of sulphur and ammonia, is often enough to send even the bravest tourist whimpering back to their hotel. In the 1990s, a third of all complaints to tourism officials in Beijing concerned the design, and odour, of public lavatories. China has battled stinky loos for at least 2,000 years. In the Kingdom of Wei (220-265AD), visitors to the palace bathrooms would find boxes of dates to stuff up their noses and ward off unpleasant odours. However, both flushing lavatories and toilet paper were invented in China, although only initially for the use of the emperor. Today, however, Chinese scientists have claimed victory in their battle to improve public rest rooms, unveiling a bacterial spray that can, they say, almost eliminate the smell of putrefaction. First, a set of six strains of bacteria work to break down the odorous compounds and then a perfume made from orange peel lightly scents the air. The "smell-free lavatory" study from the Chinese Academy of Science was declared the "ultimate" cure to an "urgent" national issue. "Five scientists have worked on this from 2011 to the beginning of this year," said Dr Yan Zhiying, a bacteriologist with the academy's Chengdu Institute of Biology, adding that they had spent ￡140,000 on the project. | 
