XINING - China is spending 30 million yuan ($4.8 million) to build scores of mobile flushing toilets along tourist routes in a sparsely-populated northwest plateau region.

The move is meant to address tourists' chronic complaints about the trouble of finding a proper toilet in Qinghai province, where breathtaking scenery is hidden among its vast plateau mountains more often trekked by herds than humans.

Local herders do not bother with toilets in the rural areas and long-haul truck drivers seldom bother, either, but the lack of toilets has become a problem for urban tourists who are too shy to opt for an "open-air roadside solution" when nature calls.

The provincial government has earmarked 30 million yuan for the construction of some 80 mobile toilets, with each costing an average of 375,000 yuan, along key provincial roads and inside popular tourist spots this year, said Xu Chaowei, an official with the provincial tourism bureau.

Xu said the planned toilets, along with 40 others built last year, would enable tourists to relieve themselves in modern facilities spaced about two hours apart on major tourist routes in the province.

The government's goal is to further reduce the travel time between toilets to just one hour by building more toilets before 2015, Xu added.

It is costly to build and maintain flush toilets in the remote plateau region, officials said.

Qinghai is located at the eastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Outside the provincial capital of Xining, the population is sparse - fewer than five people per square kilometer on average.

But tourism has been developing fast over the past few years. In 2011, more than 14 million tourists visited Qinghai, bringing in 9.2 billion yuan in tourism revenue, official statistics show.