Shanghai will trial a unisex public toilet block for the first time in November, in a bid to cut queue times for women, according to local media reports.

Located in a busy park in Pudong New Area, the block will have 10 unisex stalls, a separate room for urinals and a stall for the disabled.

It is due to open on World Toilet Day, which falls on Nov 19.

An official with the project, Ms Fu Liping, told the Xinhua news agency: "It is an apparent problem that women have to wait in line for toilets."

News website CCTVNews, quoting a manager of the toilet, reported that each stall is equipped with "firm doors and secure locks" to prevent harassment.

They will also be more spacious and have higher partitions, while more toilet attendants will be deployed.

The concept of men and women sharing the same toilet space, however, has been met with a lukewarm response on the Internet.

One Weibo user wrote that "males and females are different", with another suggesting to instead build bigger female toilets to solve the problem.