March 21, 2017, 03:26 PM 
A popular Beijing tourist attraction has installed toilet paper dispensers with facial recognition technology in a bid to cut down on the free-riding behaviour of visitors who use too much of it.
The two week trial at the Temple of Heaven, one of the Beijing’s most crowded tourist sites, is "a former hotbed of toilet paper kleptomania" .
BEIJING, CHINA - JANUARY 29: People visit the Temple of Heaven to celebrate Chinese new year, the year of the Rooster on January 29, 2017 in Beijing, China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
While the park has retained its existing roll dispensers for users who are not adept with technology, six wall-mounted machines, each with a high definition camera have been installed.
Based on current settings, the machine's technology will scan users' faces and dispense 60cm of toilet paper to each person every 9 minutes.
The park has also upgraded the toilet paper's quality from one-ply to two-ply.
BEIJING, CHINA - MARCH 20: The machine recognizes a man's face to give out toilet paper automatically at a toilet in the park of the Temple of Heaven on March 20, 2017 in Beijing, China. Six toilet roll machines which can recognize one's face to give out paper automatically have been installed at the park of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Each person can get 60cm to 70cm toilet paper every time, and can't get twice within 9 minutes. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)
Photographs of people stealing toilet paper from toilets in Temple of Heaven Park had gone viral online earlier this month, with some offenders people seen making multiple trips a day.
Taking toilet paper from public toilets for use at home is actually a social phenomenon that has been going on for years.
China media has investigated the free-riding acts and found that most of the toilet paper hoarders were mostly senior citizens.
All photos from Getty Images.
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