Zhang Minghua and her husband, Zhao Xiandong, work as toilet cleaners outside Lama Temple in Beijing.[Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

Zhang Minghua's typical day begins before the sun rises and ends around 11 pm. Zhang Xuan gets a glimpse of her life outside Lama Temple in Beijing.

A day in the life of Zhang Minghua, a 46-year-old public toilet cleaner outside the revered Lama Temple (Yonghegong) in downtown Beijing, begins early. She reports to work at around 5 am and cuts a lonely figure while putting on her uniform to begin cleaning the women's toilet before daylight breaks. The temple stays open from 9 am to 4 pm daily.

Her job usually ends by 11 pm, even during the bitter winter. Zhang wakes up without an alarm.

She has worked at the temple for the past two years. In 2008, she came to Beijing from a poor village outside Guangyuan city in Southwest China's Sichuan province. Since then and until 2012, she worked as a toilet cleaner at Longfu Building, a commercial complex near the Dongsi subway station.

Here's how the rest of her day goes:

7 am: A small dose of sunshine enters her living quarters, which is basically a 7-square-meter room adjoining the men's and women's toilets at the temple. The room that she and her husband, Zhao Xiandong, 49, share has a 1.8-meter-long sofa bed, an electric heater and some kitchenware.

Zhao cleans the men's toilet, and he steps back into their room after checking up on his section. They then exchange notes over a quick breakfast of porridge.

"My toilet is clean. I suppose almost no one came here last night," Zhao tells his wife.

Although the temple stays open until 4 pm, people can use the toilets even late at night because their units are located outside the temple.

But the women's toilet is worse than the men's. Zhang uses disinfectants and pieces of cloth to clean the toilet that has just one stall, with a squatting unit.

A young woman comes in looking distressed and flings open the toilet door with one foot. After she leaves, Zhang cleans the handle of the toilet door with a piece of new cloth and a cleanser until it looks spotless. She then scrubs the shoe print off the door.

"I don't grumble," Zhang says. "Providing a comfortable and clean environment to users is my duty. I am paid to do it."