Several international luxury hotel chains have been shocked by a video posted on the Web showing unsanitary maintenance practices in their Chinese properties.(Photo: Tim Dillon / USA TODAY & # 39; HUI)

BEIJING – Chinese authorities are inspecting several major international hotels after a camera hidden by a video showed workers cleaning rooms using soiled towels to clean cups and glbades, among other dubious practices.

The Chinese Ministry of Tourism announced last Thursday that it had asked authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and three provinces to investigate 14 hotels listed in the video. Several hotels, including a Sheraton and the Waldorf Astoria, apologized.

The almost The 12-minute video, posted earlier this week, shows workers cleaning bathrooms. In many clips, you can see them wiping sinks, coffee cups and glbades with the same used towel. You wipe a glbad with the bottom edge of your cleaning uniform.

An activist blogger who uses the pseudonym "Huazong" posted the video on Wednesday night on his verified account on Weibo, a Chinese version of Twitter. He calls the problem long and widespread, writing that he spent 2,000 nights in 147 hotels in six years. The video has been viewed more than 30 million times.

The state broadcaster CCTV broadcast a video of uniformed inspectors at an unidentified hotel, showing their ID and holding a glbad in the light to inspect it.

The Peninsula Hotel in Beijing said on Friday that officials of the city's food and medicine administration had carried out an on-site inspection of the cups the day before and found them cleaner than the required standards. The cups were sent for further testing, the hotel said in a statement posted on his Weibo account.

"The hotel will continue to take steps to strengthen the implementation of standard procedures for the room service staff to ensure that all aspects comply with established standards of the peninsula," said the communicated.

Shangri-La Hotel in Fuzhou said the video's actions violated its hygiene standards, while Beijing's Park Hyatt called the event isolated.

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