From Sina:
Taking Care Of Baby Awkwardness: China’s Restrooms, Definitely Chinese Characteristics
Bringing my daughter back to the country, I wanted to see all my relatives and good friends, and dining with guests was unavoidable. That one day, I was invited to Tang Song Fu [a restaurant] to eat, a rather impressive restaurant, said to be very high grade/quality, but speaking of grade/quality, it should of course not just cover the quality of the food, price, and especially the service. The service staff brought a child seat for my daughter, and although it was a little dirty on the surface, it was still passable having been wrapped with Tang style designs/logos. As long as it can be used, it was fine. After everyone finished merrily eating, I happily followed the waitress’s directions carrying my daughter to the restroom to change the diaper, but upon entering, I almost could not believe it. Such a large restaurant, such a lavish dining area, but only 6-7 square meters for the restroom! If it is so small, I could predict that there would not be a diaper changing table, but it would be fine as long as the wash basin counter area is big enough. I did not even think of nitpicking, and having an area the size of a palm large enough to let me change my baby’s diaper would have been enough. However, it could not fit a one-year-old child. So, I will just put down the toilet cover and change on thet toilet cover, but when I look, there simply were no toilets, all of them were squatting toilets. Truly with no more options left, I carried my daughter and simply turned back. My poor child, better go home and take care of it.
Second incident, also an outside dinner party, after drinking several cups of a type of oolong tea, I immediately went to the restroom. Again squatting toilets, but they are no longer strange to me, but after finishing, toilet paper cannot be found. This memory, how could I have forgotten that Chinese domestic restrooms do not provide toilet paper! So like this, I pulled up my clothes and came out, awkward to who knows what degree, this feeling, truly makes me want to collapse!
Third incident, again taking my daughter out to dinner, and during the feasting, my daughter’s diaper had already swollen up to the extreme. This restaurant was okay, there was a long communal basin counter top between the mens and womens’ restroom, so I found a clean area, spread the changing cloth that came with Nestle’s milk powder, and changed my daughter. Pleased, I raised my head and looked at the mirror before me, my god, there was a uniform line of service staff behind me in the mirror, their eyes all unblinkingly staring at me and my daughter. I truly felt awkward to death there, wishing my eyes were sewn shut. Here [in China], do not think of having privacy, everything is exposed to everyone.
Fourth incident, went to take photographs of my daughter. This was at the foreigner-friendly Isetan department store, right, and I was thinking, this time there will definitely be a baby changing table. In the department store’s eye-catching directory map, I also clearly saw a baby changing room, so I was even more 100% confident that I must go to where foreigners frequent before demanding everything to be in line with international standards. While leaving after finishing taking the pictures, I was overjoyed to go to the restroom. But! The place was pretty big, and I simply could not find the changing table I wanted to find. With regards to domestic restrooms, I have truly had enough, there is nothing I can say. This time, I thoroughly fainted [was disappointed and gave up]!
I once saw an investigation about this, when foreigners come to China, upon returning, if you ask them what was their deepest impressionn, “China’s restrooms” definitely will be in the top five. Didn’t real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi say before, if China can move the mountain of this restroom problem, tens of millions of children would have taken a big step towards the civilized world?
It appears that China’s bathrooms are absolutely a problem, and not a small problem either. This is something that someone coming back from abroad most deeply understands.
Thinking of Chairman Mao’s instruction, it can basically give us the conclusion, there basically is no such thing as a small thing in this world, because if you look from another angle, the small thing is absolutely big enough.
Comments from NetEase:
zhenzhen3522:
Lou zhu is too much a foreigner-worshipper. What is wrong with our China? You only seek your own convenience, but have damned China to this degree. I admit that our domestic service industry still has a very large room to improve in the humanization aspect, but you still cannot speak this extremely. If it is so comfortable outside of China, you should get out then. Even though our China is both dirty and messy, a thoroughly Chinese person would still not be this disgusted with it. There is a common saying that “a son does not think his mother ugly”, and you have even forgotten these ancient proverbs/sayings!!!
HANG9851:
Hehe, lou zhu since you are comparing high quality restrooms from abroad with the fake high quality restrooms within the country, it is unfair. Have you never seen those splendid restrooms in those large Shenzhen Guangzhou hotels and high quality restaurants, they are probably even more clean than your bedroom! And you talk about toilet paper! On this point alone, we can determine you are through and through a false Chinese person who thinks oneself is some high class person.
dowje:
Restrooms designed with squatting toilets is because our countrymen like to be clean, hygienic, and are afraid of contracting diseases. Lou zhu, have you never seen the 80s generation where all the public restrooms were seating toilets, causing all the ordinary common people to stand/squat on the toilets when they used them, causing many different people’s dissatisfaction? It was only after they changed to squatting toilets did this matter quiet down.
At any time, we can only look after the majority’s benefit/interests. Just because the lou zhu or some other people are not used to something, we cannot require the majority to cater to your point of view. I recommend the lou zhu first ask the restaurant about its restroom situation before going there and decide whether or not to go there to eat.
独孤求伴:
With housing prices so expensive and restrooms so small, lou zhu please just be a bit more tolerant/forgiving, okay? [and feel pity for normal Chinese]
空军后勤部:
Lou zhu is a stupid cunt, go back to your foreign country.
y先生:
When China becomes strong and powerful, tell the foreigners to change [to China's way]!
lcy2109:
China’s restrooms are indeed very embarrassing, and especially public areas and tourist locations should pay attention to improving as soon as possible.
yhw19661104:
Kao, just returned from abroad? I originally though you were a foreigner! What is there to be unused to? Is it heaven abroad?
Just after a few days and this foreigner fucker has forgotten who she is! Die abroad and do not come back then!!
yinliang232:
Making a big deal out of nothing, lou zhu, you…I welcome you to go to China’s poorer places and toughen yourself. Afterward, you will no longer complain about this or complain about that!
caimian:
She did not care about her tone or what words she used, but the problem she described is still the main issue. This is an issue of individual people’s hygiene habits and has nothing to do with quality or patriotism. Habits are completely able to be changed. For example, flushing after use is very simple, yet so many people simply do not do it. the 17th floor [17th comment, referring to above translated comment by "dowje"] said restrooms are designed for squatting because our countrymen like to be hygienic, that sitting is not hygenic, but this is still dependent on how each person uses [the toilet] and has nothing to do with whether it is squatting or sitting. If the people who use sitting toilets all know how to be hygienic, then no one would consider it dirty. If you are afraid of contracting disease, very simple, place down some toilet paper first before sitting down and it will be taken care of. Sitting restrooms still must be preserved, and we must also take care of those elderly or those people who are unaccustomed to squatting toilets. So, it is bad habits that need to be changed, and this has nothing to do with patriotism, or would you rather other people say Chinese are dirty? What is so difficult to accept about our own family members self-criticizing behind closed doors? [Chinese people self-criticizing China in Chinese in China]?
haqco:
Lou zhu, have you been to India before? I can guarantee you will be paralyze the moment you see India’s restrooms!
Comments from Sina:
永远有多远:
I agree with your point! However, I do not agree with the tone of your voice!
往高层次上带人:
Why make a mountain of a mole hill, it is not as if you did not know from before you first left China.
SSfruit:
Everyone be a little more modest! China is this way, and at least in the recent 5 years there are still many places like this. Of course, there are also many places that can satisfy your demands. Therefore, think openly, and have a lenient heart. Look at your own country and think about what kind of efforts are needed to make her better rather than blindly complain.
prtsz.vip:
As with anything, a part cannot be taken as the whole. Not all restrooms abroad are very high class (I have been to many European and American countries), and I think most of our restrooms in China are not bad. If we want to compare, we should compare restrooms of the same level. America’s poor areas also have the same kind of outhouses as China’s countryside. Abroad is also not heaven, low class people and matters are also plenty. I have seen many domestic no-star restaurants and many highway rest stop area restrooms that are all not bad. Moreover, restrooms are mainly a place for relieving waste, so as long as it is clean enough it will do. Such high demands is a waste, as China still has many impoverished children who have problems getting an education.
Lou zhu says there are differences between the domestic situation and developed countries, we admit, but your tone of voice sounds like you hold a grudge against your homeland, criticizing domestic restrooms so harshly as if they were nothing. Maybe you had bad luck or something, and happened to use a restroom that just ran out of toilet paper. However, of the restaurants restrooms I have been to, a situation of not having toilet paper is rare.
Of course, we are a developing China, and the good aspects of developed countries we must actively learn from. The aspects we must learn from are many, but at present I do not think the restroom problem is as you say a “big problem.”
dk9226:
I want to say that I do not need these, even if it is a bit dirty, a bit inferior. If we have the money, it would be better to take it and go support poverty-stricken areas.
Do not use that foreign standard on China, China is not a developed country, and money needs to be spent where it is needed, so being able to squat is good enough, how can you have that many demands?
The various problems of restroom design in my perspective are simply not worth mentioning. All I ask for is that it be a little clean and hygienic and it will be fine. There are many more areas that need to be improved.Also for those above commenter who say others cannot reach the grapes so call them sour, do you guys have brains? According to China’s economic level, is it necessary to construct restrooms as good as America’s? True, we should learn from where others are advanced, but it does not mean any advanced area should be learned, everything needs to be divided based upon priority/importance, and obviously restrooms are not considered important, unless the restrooms have somehow affected your healthy just by being small?
From my perspective, restroom upkeep already needs a large amount of expenses, it is not necessary to construct your restroom to be even more luxurious than the homes of ordinary common people in poverty-stricken areas just for your convenience.
原色:
Where are you from in China? China indeed has some backward places! For example, many mountain areas! I am in Beijing and I have never encountered a restaurant like the one you described~~I too am a “sea turtle” [海归, hai3 gui1, a Chinese who has studied overseas and returned to China]! If you are taking China’s remote mountain areas and comparing it to foreign capital cities, there will obviously be very big differences! I recommend you go walk around China’s large cities! That should change your point of view!
耐心:
Before complaining, first think about what you yourself have done for your homeland.
Emma:
I have the same feeling. I personally prefer squatting toilets, generally do not sit on public toilets, and if I do sit, I will first place paper [disposable seat cover], to be more hygienic. What I most cannot adapt to is not having toilet paper in so many of China’s public restrooms, maybe to conserve. However, if you think about it, if every restroom provided toilet paper, people would not do anything else with them, and would also definitely conserve paper. Having a baby just makes it more inconvenient, poor parents!
飞鱼:
Our country still has many areas that are in urgent need of improvement. At the very least, we need to first help poor people receive medical attention and first help poor children go to school before we can satisfy your lofty demands for restrooms!
义皋:
Her demand is not one bit too high, what she says is very true.
Related Posts:
- Want to know what complaints Chinese women have for their husbands? Here are some English translations of the comments they have posted on China's internet BBS. » 70 comments
- Chinese wives badmouth and complain about their husbands on a popular China BBS discussion forum. English translations of their comments from Shanghai Liba BBS. » 34 comments
- Chen Yi, or Rola Chen, an unsuccessful "Super Girl" contestant angers some Chinese with sexy pictures of her lying on top of the Japanese and Chinese flags. » 130 comments
- Chinese netizens are disgusted by a series of photos showing a Chinese couple at a beach because the man is wearing a black thong...and there is a close-up too! » 54 comments
- English translations of Chinese girls posting complaints on the popular Shanghai, China Liba BBS discussion forum about their husbands and boyfriends. » 24 comments
Chinese Wives’ Complaints About Husbands: Part 4 
Chinese Wives’ Complaints About Husbands: Part 5 
Super Girl Rola Chen Pictures Anger Chinese Netizens 
Chinese Man Wearing Thong At Beach Disgusts Netizens 
Chinese Wives’ Complaints About Husbands: Part 3 
I understand why people think its unhygienic to sit your bare bottom onto a toilet seat but its never been supported by facts; A toilet seat is very clean compared to other places, and a bare ass is a much better place to get germs than your hands. Unless you plan to…never mind. Anyway i think sitting toilets will become the norm all around the world, not because they are better but because the more developed you become, the more your lazy citizens want to plonk their asses down.
Australopithecus defecating… Need I say more?
My China toilet stories:
I’ve seen people (on the train… most people close the door obviously) in China stand on the toilet seat and squat that way. Leaves two dirty shoeprints on the seat.
I’ve been using the long, single trough sort of squat and had a small group gather around me to watch (in a remote area obviously). Also learned to squat near the beginning of the trough, not the end. At the end, when it is flushed all of the contents pile up under you. This is too much for me. Never look down.
I’ve been standing at the “urinal wall” rubbing shoulders with Chinese guys and had the two on my left and right lean forward and take a good long look at the “foreign equipment”. Talk about stage fright.
I’ve had a bathroom attendent try to chase me away for “taking too long”.
I’ve used toilet stalls that were so tiny I couldn’t shut the door because my knees were in the way (I’m 2 meters tall).
First time I used the squat I couldn’t figure out how to avoid peeing on my pants. Turns out you only pull them down halfway (to the knees). I you pull them down all the way to the ankles they act as a catch basin.
Never, ever breath through your nose.
Always carry toilet paper (or do like I’ve seen a number of Chinese guys do… use the newspaper. You can read it and then use it).
LoL, yeah, that’s part of the tricky learning curve if you’re used to seater toilets.
I was eating while I was reading this.
This person has left China for a long time. One experience is not enough to remind them to bring tissues everywhere you go in China. This person also forget that Chinese kids wear those pants has a hole in it, which I always find it amusing. I have visited China for few times and I am sure everyone has their fair share of experiences on bathrooms. I went back to the village where I was born, but I refuse to go to the bathroom. It was a communal bathroom shared by the village built in a wooden shack. I imagine that there is a bucket in there to handle all kinds of biz. Same reason why I do not go to portable potty. There is this one had me in awe was a trough bathroom. The trough was as long as the bathroom and there is running water. Whatever biz you have, the stream runs to another stall and the other stall can see your biz. I thought it was pretty nasty but it was pretty clean. I think it is some irrigation system that goes back to the fields. Go Green!! I do not care what kind of bathroom it is as long as it flushes.
It is funny that the poster said China’s bathroom has the deepest impression on foreigners. DUH!! Those foreigners have never seen a squatting toilet. My friend went to Japan and her deepest impression is the toilet. Japan had squatting toilets too and she took a picture of it.
One of my relatives came to visit USA and she said everything is great in USA but there is no public toilets. What is worse, having toilets or not having toilets? Sometimes people complain about the stupidest thing. The poster should be glad that there is a bathroom versus a portable potty.
No public toilets in America? Every restaurant, gas station, and most stores will let you use their bathroom. Maybe your friend was too embarrassed to ask.
And doesn’t everyone know that when you’re in China drinking beer you pee on the street?
True, but there aren’t truly public toilets the way there are everywhere in China, and sometimes people in gas stations, etc., can be obnoxious about letting you use their bathroom if you’re not paying (which makes some sense, as they’ll have to clean up whatever mess you make).
But here in China there are public toilets all over the place. Which is nice.
Public bathrooms aren’t all over the place, not like you’d find one every few blocks. I definitely had look for them while I was in Beijing
Well, in some cities they are. Xi’an has them practically every 4 feet or so.
Oh yeah, in Shanghai sometimes it takes me an eternity to find a public bathroom. It’s not so bad along Nanjing Road or in the city center area but out past Line 4 bathrooms are few and far between (subway stations all have them but they’re invariably in pay areas).
Public toilets in China are about the most disgusting, smelly, shit-holes you can possible imagine. What’s worse, they sometimes charge you 5 mao just to piss into the foulest smelling place on earth.
I am embarrassed to bring my family to China because of the toilet situation. No matter how nice the place, the bathrooms are disgusting.
This is kinda true in larger cities like NYC. Restaurant and store bathrooms are only for paying customers. Some smaller stores won’t even allowing paying customers to use them. Some gas stations are totally locked up behind bullet proof windows and the bathroom is only for employees
when u go out drinking in any country you pee on the street…
I do not like toilets that flush automatically, who’s with me?
Waste of money and often doesn’t work right. Sink faucets too, almost always have problem with Walmart ones
I know I’m going to sound like a bit of a Chinese apologist, BUT…
I lived in rural China for two years and almost everyone in that village had Western-style toilets, all kept very clean. Fine, the village had got lucky with some land sales and people were relatively well-off, but it just goes to show that Chinese farmers can be just as house-proud as any of us.
The squatter toilets are still common in France and plenty of other countries. I don’t think Chinese people are any happier with dirty toilets than anybody else. Of course, it’s not much of a surprise when a hell of a lot of people use limited resources in a developing country.
Try using the toilet after ten hours on a long-haul flight for a similar experience!
DWR
Some people just need to exercise more and grow a back bone for crying out loud.
The things I hate most about toilets in China are:
1. Piss all over the floor around squat toilets. I have to pull up the legs of my trousers in order to avoid them getting soaked in other peoples’ piss. The piss doesn’t just end up in the toilet, you get splashes all around it. I have a terrible fear of slipping on the said piss and ending up with a foot in the toilet with bare ass sat on the piss.
2. The awful stink. I guess people haven’t come round to the idea of using bleach regularly.
3. Petrol station toilets that have 2-foot-high ‘walls’ where you can see everyone doing their business and the product of everyone else’s business who’ve been there before you.
4. Bins without lids. It makes me want to vomit when I see other people’s blood-soaked sanitary towels and shit-smeared paper on full display, especially if the toilet is in a restaurant.
I’m not too bothered with lack of toilet paper as it encourages people not to waste loads of it. Soap would be good though. If people don’t like toilets with seats, surely they can just learn to hover? For me, high-tech Japanese toilets are the best with their warm seats, strategically placed water jets and sound effects.
Why, neptune did you have to bring all these up?! His are the most true comments on this board. Too bad locals can’t look critically at themselves, or at least put themselves in someone else’s shoes. The original thread starter was right – poor quality toilets would be on ever China tourist’s top 5 list of “you guys wouldn’t believe this…”
I agree with Neptune….Chinese bathrooms smell horrible!!!!
pros of seat toilet:
more comfortable, legs wouldn’t be sore if I shit for too long, shit immerses in water so it’s less smelly
cons of seat toilet:
need to clean up the seat for the next shitter, definitely less hygienic if the previous shitter didn’t behave like the good me (see my story at the end), some toilets are too small that I have to adjust my “thing” into it with hand in the first half of shitting phrase
pros of squat toilet:
shitting events are much less correlated with previous and future ones (thus we call it Markov Shitting), more environmental friendly since it takes less tissues to wipe my ass (the squatting position makes butts more wild open thus less shit sticked), it’s easier to check out how it’s going on (just bend my head)
cons of squat toilet:
prepare new trousers if it sprays, precise alignment is needed (it can be a disaster if you didn’t target well), sometimes flushing is too strong and it sputters everywhere
The story I have about seat toilet:
I happened to be in a restroom in Chicago O’Hare Airport and found the toilet could automatically change plastic cover on toilet seat so shitters wouldn’t be bothered by previous shitters’ medical history. With a simply click of button, new cover pushes the old one to sweep around the seat ring and a clean seat is ready for shitting on. The designer was a genius. However, he/she didn’t take the extreme case into consideration. The bastard before me shitted on the exposed conjunction between old and new covers and after it swept, I got a perfect ring of 屎!
I recently used those same toilets and was very impressed with the auto-dispensing plastic cover but I also didn’t have an “edge” case like you did. Gross!
FYI, I saw similar toilets in Jiuzaigou (a beautiful area btw… and I found I love to eat mao niu rou) of all places. They had these portable toilet like places at some of the tourist stops in the gorge and they used a similar automatic plastic cover. I was pleasantly surprised.
Squat toilet + diarrhea = NASTY
I always wonder if they recycle the plastic wrap. Imagine, O’Hare Airport is an international airport and many people have layover there. How can that little thing carry that many plastic wrap? Could it be that there is a towel that wipes it clean and recycle the used one like it’s new.
LOL! That’s a good question. Yikes.
I’ve never tried a squat tiolet. I think it will be better for me. I’m looking forward to try it in China. The problem with western toilets is that my big American penis is too large and always goes into the water. :D
I understand completely. Mine gets tangled in the plumbing.
Reminds me of the joke about two guys standing on the bank of a river and peeing in, first one says “Man, that water is cold.” and the second one says, “Yep, and the bottom is muddy”. A friend from Kenya told me that he tells the same joke only instead of standing on the bank of the river they are on a bridge going over it. Made me laugh my butt off.
LOL! Yeah, that’s hilarious. I must try to remember that one next time someone asks me to tell a joke.
Thank God, finally some Chinese spoke out about this issue. Damn it, I have been having this problem since I came here and whenever I requested and complained about this issue, I was always ignored. No idea, why restrooms are so much neglected in Mainland China.
Maybe it’s because, old habits are too hard to give up easily.
Cleanliness and Hygeine are not Confucian virtues.
I’ve also always been FASCINATED by how sensitive Chinese people are to a little cold air (turn on an AC on a hot day and watch their reactions) YET no odor is too foul to make them gag or hold their breath.
Amazes me.
This is spot on.
My students are CONVINCED that the ceiling fan will give them a cold.
And yes one more thing, I think those Chinese people who opposes LZ should be taught the importance of restrooms and its maintenance. How silly comments they can give, when proper restroom is one of the signs of civilization along with the prevention and protection of health.
P.S Can we try to fetch those Chinese people hear what laowai thinks about the toilets/restrooms in China. Maybe something gets in the head,
I think a bigger problem is the places you occasionally run into that charge money to use a bathroom. I don’t care if it’s only 2 mao or whatever, charging money for a restroom is uncivilized.
LOL. The bathroom problem is getting better in more modern places, like Beijing. Still, public restrooms are so hard to find. Business and Restaurants only allow paying customers to use. I actually gotten used to the squatting toilet, when it is not pissed all over…
Lol, why not try KFC or McDonalds, atleast they don’t know who’s their new or old(already eaten his meal) customer.
And I guess, KFC and MD’s are more in China than public restooms. :P
Next time don’t ask for restroom location but KFC or McDonalds.
I personally prefer squatter toilet because when I use a seat toilet and my shit drops, the water inside often splashes onto my butt..most disgusting..
There are plenty of seated toilets where your shit doesn’t drop straight into the water but onto a ledge. It’s when you flush that your shit goes into the water. These are the norm in the Netherlands.
I’ve often found it strange though, why the water level of some seated Chinese toilets is almost up to the top of the bowl. Can anyone explain why?
And why do toilets in China seem to get blocked so much more easily than anywhere else? Is it just due to the different paper?
Wow, don’t flush the paper in China… Bad idea!
Oh my, this finger-pointing bitch of a woman,
RE: “there was a long communal basin counter top between the mens and womens’ restroom, so I found a clean area”
If I was at a *restaurant*, and just finished eating some wonderful pumpkin soup, and went to take a piss….came out and washed my hands to find a lady at the ‘communal’ basin between mens and womans changing her baby’s pumpkin-shit filled diaper infront of me, I don’t think I’d be eating dessert. Change in private, go into a fucking toilet, you peasant finger wagging skag. I bet shes the type who also holds her 4 year old children over grates in the meat sections of supermarkets to pee.
Hey Rick, so, if i had a great lunch, and, going to pee afterward, I meet your wife and chidren changing diaper, I will sure vomit on the floor, is it what you say?
My wife wouldn’t be changing a shit-filled diaper next to a public sink, ie, where people go to “sanitize”.
You’ve clearly never had children, Dick. Changing a nappy in China is pretty difficult
You’re clearly a tool, and should keep your witless attempts at insulting to yourself. Changing your perspective to one of a non-tool may earn you some + points for being sanitary in public.
In public, oddly enough, I prefer squat toilets. Not only do they seem more sanitary, but I don’t have any problems lining up or getting ’shit spray’ or whatever you above people mention – my god, eat a little less bacteria-ridden street food! In addition, I find that I feel more…hmm, how to say, the positioning seems to let me feel like I’ve expelled more from my body on the squatters. That being said, at home, I definitely prefer a normal western toilet.
Worst China bathroom story: (OK these types of stories are super juvinile but I get a kick out of telling this one).
I was travelling in Qinghai in a town whose name I can’t quite remember at the moment, but it was built around a big Tibetan Buddhist temple. There were tons of locals at the temple that day because there was a big debate going on between monks regarding religious philosophy.
Anyway someone pointed me to the bathroom and I saw a guy just peeing in the doorway without entering. I was like wtf, this is a temple, at least use the hole in the floor. After he was done I walked up to enter the bathroom. It was a big, roofless room, probably about 15 by 15 meters or more. On the far end of the room was a raised area that was (I assume) the toilet. The fifteen meters between me and the toilet was completed (and I mean totally, 100%) covered in feces.
I think you can imagine where I peed.
I kinda like the Japanese toilets. Tried them when I visited Japan. The water sprayer feels great and probably gets you more clean. Wish they had them in LA, you could definitely use a good spray down after a mexican dinner. Know what I mean? Another thing about the Japanese toilets. I read an article online from a Japanese site that said about 30% of women in Japan use that toilet sprayer for da feiji, ha ha. :)
I’m sure that da feiji is a male prerogative. Can anyone tell me what the female equivalent is.
simply mastrubation
Wow, that’s all you get in China for a toilet? That sucks. If I wanted a bathroom that bad, I would have to search for a really bad area of town or something.
Even the fast food restaurants here have better bathrooms than that. But I guess most of the people posting have never been outside of China, so they don’t know how bad they have it.
Oh believe me, I know. And I hate it. Even the pay toilets suck.
What’s good what’s bad? I’m used to seated toilets, so whenever I’m in China I never get used to it.
And I’m a horrible squater. I can’t hold it out long enough.
But in new appartments most bathrooms have a seated toilet. Only public toilets still have those squat toilets (talking about experience in bigger cities, never went to rural areas for long).
i like chinese public toilets because people there’s people living in them and that makes me feel less alone when i’m splashing my la duzi all over the place.
2 stories:
1) A guy taking a piss, eating a cob of corn, having smoke and talking on his cel phone, all at the same time. Magic!
2) The toilets at Everest Base Camp. It’s like someone built the walls around the huge piles of shit just to contain them. Absolutely the worst toilet I have ever seen in my life.
I second the “piss on the floor” sentiment. How hard is it to aim properly? Maybe I answered my own question with story #1 above. Multi-tasking, in this case, is not necessarily a good thing.
Many people in China are still struggling to make a living and living in very poor conditions. The kids essentially do not have the luxury of napkins ! It will take some time for them to learn and be able to afford the finer things in life. Be patient, their priority is something else.
My take. For fxxxx sake. The woman had a little baby,, obviously those Chinese commentators never had a child (who uses diapers). Yeah,, big surprise. You DO have to change them on occasion and if you don’t you’ll have a non-stop creaming baby on your hands. What I think is odd (and I friggin hate squat toilets) is that restaurants who generally employ 5 times as many people as is needed can’t assign just one of their 50 employees to clean the bathroom regularly.
I sometimes hear some of my Chinese acquaintances talk about how much more sanitary squat toilets are when you just need a quick stand up pee. Obviously those guys never look down at the mist-like spray that guarantees that 2 square meters around the actual hole is completely wet from pee after 3-4 people have used it. Have you seen when people exit from a squat toilet? those 10 meters of wet footprints they trail isn’t glacier water you know.
All she needed to do if she wanted a toilet with a better chance of the facilities she was looking for was to goto one of the posher 5 star hotels.
Works everytime.(well,almost)
No brainer really!
Has anyone seen Chinese babies in nappies? I’ve only seen crotchless trousers. Perhaps that’s why there aren’t many baby changing facilities about.
Ahhh I like squat one, it helps a lot, I crouch down and BoOoO! everything comes out swiftly.
Whereas on seat toilet I have to squeeze hard.
Just so you know, you can get a bunch of catheters from a medical supply store and use them when you find yourself in a foreign country.
The poster sounds like a whining, annoying nut. She should have known how things are. What, she went abroad, got used to good service, came back, and expected everything to have magically updated or improved itself? Many toilets in China are nasty pissholes and some are just breeding grounds for maggots and vector baring mosquitos. That said, public toilets in the US can be as bad or worse. Anyone ever been to a bathroom at a truck stop or gas station? Many would give the worst Chinese toilet a humiliating lesson in filth! And I know, I’ve been a janitor.
The main problem I see with squatters is that handicapped people have a problem using them. I have a few students who are disabled and are unable to use the squatters.
Other than that it’s definitely hard for someone with an infant to use public restrooms without split pants. I definitely hope the culture of split pants fades because it’s pretty unhygienic and I wonder how the children feel with it’s colder.
Lastly, automatic restrooms are the way to go, at least good ones. They use less water, at least the sink does, and it’s cleaner because a lot of bacteria (specifically e.choli) is spread because of sink handles.
True story.
One of my old colleagues told me that there was a person who works on the same floor. He would always spray feces all over the wall inside the stall. This person obviously does not sit and have chronic diarrhea. Would he have sprayed on the wall if it was a squatting toilet?
its true, they are pretty rank for the most part. the restrooms are usually one of the first shocks when my friends or family visits from overseas. the worst that’s happened to me, conduct wise, is when an old man got on the toilet in his stall to peek over the wall at me. “ni kan shenme???!!!”
I think I’m a superhero; I seem to be the only one here who can hold in a disobedient mass of groaning shit.
How long do you plan on doing that? Until you shoot your intestines into the squatter?
Nah, just until I reach the comfort of my own dwelling place. Honestly, I think I’ve shat in a public place about 4 times in my life. Not for reasons of cleanliness mind you, I just find it immensely diffcult to ease out a crap with other people near-by…
Enter FCUK,
Xian, countryside, I was trotting like anheiser stallion. We had to stop the bus because three of us were suffering from last nights banquest of fried ass and monkey testicles…
Walking about 10 MINUTES literally holding my ass I gazed upon one of the most digusting awe inspiring sites I had ever seen. A hill with steps going up to the top covered in garbage. At the top you could see what looked like a bus shelter facing the opposite way. at the bottom of the hill where I was standing was a trough filled with SHIT that slid down from the top of the bust stop. looking up from the bottom you could see asses hanging down and brown anacondas being released into the wild.
One of the guys who HAD to go looked at this mountain and said “FCUK it” walked away. I climbed the mountain of garbage only to find in the bus stop and open area where you hang your bootie over the edge and commense the dropping. No dividers, men and women.
I won’t even get into the smell, but the funniest part was during my session a kid with crotchless pants squatted next to me and grunted like he was trying to bench three wheels. 6 guys in the squatie, I’m the only one who wiped so when I see this post
“When China becomes strong and powerful, tell the foreigners to change [to China's way]!”
I laugh. You Chinos really do have mental problems, and hygene ones to go along with it
You stole that out of the lonely planet guide from 1992!
Who do you think wrote that in 92 :)
My guess, not you… I’d say you were in high school in 92… maybe even middle school.
I note that a few regulars are all to eager to post on this serious issue.
I was visiting the Seattle space needle a few years back and one of my first experience with Chinese people was a woman bathing her son’s shitty arse in the public sink.
Security broke was there in an instant while she hurried to explain, “I must clean him.”
“Not in our sinks, lady”
The bathroom was airy and spacious and I’ll never forget my smiles nor disgust.
I thought about taking a picture of the upset mother but didn’t was DCFS on my arse.
you are the feces that pollute china
I guess none of you have gone to a country that don’t use toilet papers at all after they finish number two…
If you do, and you’re greeting somebody, and you happen to be left handed, make sure you shake the person’s right hand.
the best toilets are in the airport. the worst is in the shopping malls and side street eateries.
Middle schools are pretty disgusting too. The “janitor” usually put the mop in the squatting hole, then wash the hallway with no soap whatsoever. In a middle school. Smells like shit all over, and the germs? Gross.
Yeah, but even hospitals here in China don’t have toilet paper nor soap… they’re just asking for diseases to be spread.
I have made a declaration. That the new name for Chinoville is: THE P.R.W.C because this place is nothing but a giant toilet bowl full of turds and corn kernals hahahah
I win! For most posts. Note the topic and the eagerness to reply!
The fact is, hygiene is not a strong-suite of the Chinese. It’s a shame, because it seems that proper hygiene is a fundamental aspect of a civilized people. To the people defending China’s lack of hygiene: Would you rather continue to be filthy and repulsive just to support your pride or would it not be better to just improve yourself? Sadly there are too many uncultured and uneducated Chinese and not enough culture and education to go around in China. I suggest the government actively send its citizens to other countries for “cultural education”.
What she says is very true. No need to make her complaint into a nationalist issue. If Chinese like squat toilets that’s ok but they should understand that most non-Asians find them very unpleasant and often dirty. I couldn’t believe it when I was recently at the Chengdu Airport and could only find squat toilets and no toilet paper. What kind of impression does that make on visitors?
The only other thing that I find more unpleasant about China is the way drivers treat pedestrians.
My god, the drivers! Several times I’ve almost got into physical altercations with asshole drivers. The thing is, they think you are being the asshole for expecting right-of-way. In the US (where I’m from) if a driver flashes his lights at you it means he’s letting you go, in China it means he’s going to fucking hit you. The horn honking also drives me bat-shit crazy.
I can’t wait until I can go home…. I hate this place, I really do.
Yeh, I hate car horns. Car drivers become much like internet trolls in a sense. I mean, how often would someone scream at another human to move? Never. But give relative anonymity and a horn, and it’s hooonk hooonk non-stop. The car horn serves no purpose except as a means to be rude, obnoxious and vent anger without unwinding the window. An absolutely ridiculous invention.
I think that the Chinese Government needs to start installing a “Green Dam” into the horns of EVERY car in China to limit their honks to under 50 for every 24 hour period.
That would really cut down on the noise pollution!
Ha ha, Chengdu airport. I usually fly in from Hong Kong. I make sure I go to the bathroom in Hong Kong airport before getting on my flight and avoid eating on the plane.
I am sick and tired of hearing people complain about China’s squatting toilets. There is a very good reason behind it that everyone seems to ignore. With the amount of population they have, it’s more hygienic to have a squatter where nobody physically touches the toilet and requires less maintenance. If it’s less superior to the seated toilet they would’ve changed it by now but they didn’t because it obviously works for them.
Naomi,
I suspect that would be more true if all 1.4 billion Chinese were using the same toilet.
what is wrong with you idiots, you travel to another country to see new things, and you want that all the fucking world to have the same toilet as you? thats why amerikkkans makes me sick, your stupidity is so big
It’s not about the-same vs. not-the-same. It’s about clean vs. disgusting. I’m surprised you couldn’t catch that.
No its not. Its about going to your friend’s house and complaining about his toilet. There is two solutions.
a) don’t go to your friend’s house
b) don’t use the toilet when you’re at your friend’s house
Spot-on. I’m surprised that people would defend squat toilets- I’ve heard the “sanitary” excuse being tossed about but I’m not seeing it. They smell and look worse.
And @Billy Joe- uh, no.
I agree with TheOrz.
I have NO PROBLEM with squatter toilets, that’s fine.
I have a problem with:
1.) No soap in public bathrooms
2.) No toilet paper
3.) No maintenance in most public bathrooms
Chinese people think that cold air (from an AC) and cold drinks are “bad for your health” but not wiping your ass after taking a dump or washing your hands is perfectly sanitary…..
I HOPE ZHONG GUO BLOCKS THIS ANGLO TROLLHOLE OF A .COM
THIS WEEK THE CITIZENS OF CHINA GOT A NICE THANK YOU GIFT OF $10,000 EACH TO SPEND ON ANYTHING THEY WANT, EARLIER TAIPEI HAD A SIMILAR VOUCHER AFTER THE RIGHTFUL HAN GOVERNMENT WAS RETURNED
Here is a WALLSTREET ARTICLE
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2009/02/13/license-to-spend-chinese-cities-hope-vouchers-will-spur-consumption/
MEANWHILE OCAL NEWS IN USofSICK, UnitedAngloKindom, GUNS, ASSAULT ON WOMEN, RIOTS, RAPE and ARMED ROBBERY ARE UP 700%
ASIANS ARE SPECIFICALLY THE TARGET OF THIS RISING CRIME WAVE
You are the the perfect example of what’s wrong with a country full of nationalistic gusto and a government censored news-media. Whether you realize it or not, you are a tool.
Read before you post plz. It never happened the way you described it, and certainly not everywhere. Not a lick of free money to be had in Shanghai. And I second TheOrz’s comment.
Then again, you post in all caps. Maybe you’re beyond help.
I THIRD TheOrz comment!!
Consider it fourthed!
Although I understand and respect cultural differences, I don’t understand why so many Chinese toilets are very dirty and smelling bad. I am also wondering how disabled and eldery people could use squatting toilets.
I am avoiding as much as possible to use the public toilets: I go at home before I go out. Fortunately toilets in the hotels during my travels have clean toilets with Western toilets. (Because of a bad knee, I have difficulties to squat)
Good hygeine should be universal and not “cultural”.
I don’t like squating toilets – sprays of la duzi would kill me but why oh why if i go to thailand or vietnam or indonesia where people also have squating toilets can they smell of lemons and are super clean??? They wash themselves with water no toilet paper i believe and are very clean people that squat. In China even the newest restaurants toilets will stink like hell after only 2 weeks with shit and piss stains everywhere. Chinese people just do not have hygene and its disgusting, and only a fool would start to defend something so filthy
I actually agree with this. Even when I was desperate to lay a richard the third in Malaysia, some squatters were really bad, but these were in some far out district of KL, outside a streetside restaurant used by local working people. So pretty much the same as China there.
But in the shopping malls, the squatters and floor , were clean by and large, as was the general environment in comparison. Then Singapore and Malaysia do have much stricter laws and punishments for people who litter and vandalize and so on. A point that draws blanks when I mention it in China.
Could that be the key to solving the problem? By Jove, I think they’ve got it right!!
I actually prefer squat toilets. Two things I will never get used to in China:
1. Unhygienic smell lingering around almost every public bathroom
2. Lack of soap and/or hand paper towels or hand dryer
dirty bathrooms, or noisy streets – no big deal, getting used to it, or … You know, they are annoying, but wont kill you
maybe because I was from china.
but the true killers are the toxic air you breath in, the unregulated poison-laden food items you consume – i just found out the cooking peanut oil i just used last week was chemically fortified with something causing burns, and if you take a tour around your city’s water supply source like i just did, you would want to get the hell out right now.
Simon said:
“and if you take a tour around your city’s water supply source like i just did, you would want to get the hell out right now.”
Simon, I’m very intrigued by this. I assume you mean the water we are using for showering and washing right? Can you elaborate more please?
Some french tourists attractions hold the squatting toilete as well. My french instructor warned us to carry kleenex with us just in case. I don’t know about lack of soap…
i agree. china’s bathrooms are dirty. but then that is because we live in a world different from theirs. everyone is just used to whatever society we are from. Chinese people certainly thinks we are wasting paper when we print and photocopy them at leisures for school, company, etc. china’s population is big which accounts for the squatting bathroom phenonmenon. some of the bathrooms in new york city is similiar with those in china, simply because of a huge population.
I like China’s loo it is easier to
make poops, I HATE us toilets you
can’t poop because if your not squatting
the poops don’t come out, they go back
in your butt and make you mad.
I squat when I can’t make the poops
come out of my butt and leave shoe
marks on the seat and upset my brother.
It isn’t just the toilets, its the
people, I was born in the wrong country,
GIVE ME THE DAMN MONEY and I will leave
the US and go to China, Japan, India,
Danmark, someplace else where I can be ME.
The US expects me to be someone I cannot
be, and I disapoint her every day by
just being me, and I make America sad,
I cannot please her, I can only please me.
Give me the money and I hurt America no more.
Toilet in China are indeed something to ponder upon. A relative of mine went to rural area in China and find that the restroom have no doors. There are cubicles, just no door. Mine you, my relative is a women. I personally been to Shanghai. I was carrying my backpack with me, and when I went into the cubicle of a restroom in one of the mall in Xintiandi, it;s just like the pictures above, very small, no water too…..
I hate this attitude that you must “taste bitterness” to be patriotic. There is nothing wrong with constructively criticizing one’s own country. To be blindly controlled by old thinking and accepting all the stuff that is broken in today’s China is just to do what the Party want you to do: “shut up, consume, don’t complain.” China will advance when her people become as discriminating about their national culture as they are with pricey imported goods.
Xiaming is right….when more people act like this person then China will really start to improve.
Pls don’t forget that u came from China…I’m a Malaysian chinese but i’ll always remember of where my ancestor origin…n i’ve got a lot of Chinese friend from Xi’an…
If u already holding a foreign passport…then u are too proud of yourself…althought what u said are true..but the way u said it …is totally not acceptable!
That last picture…I came across a public toilet like that, and it wasn’t even in any remote area either. It was in Beijing (pre olympics.) It smelt terrible, that I could have handled if all the people squatting there hadn’t all turned their heads to stare at the next person to enter.
They have nice toilets as well in the flashier resturants/hotels WITH toilet paper (though not all the time because people tend to steal the whole roll for some reason) but despite the flashiness of the toilets, the people who’d used them obviously weren’t very considerate, leaving toilet paper on the floor and crapping over the seats, and no matter where they always smelt. I’m Chinese BTW and there’ve been plenty of improvements in Chinese in recent years. But I have to agree. Chinese public toliets leave one of the biggest impressions above all else.
I noticed that one of the Chinese people wrote,
“Restrooms designed with squatting toilets is because our countrymen like to be clean, hygienic, and are afraid of contracting diseases”
My reaction: You’ve got to be joking. Chinese people crap, piss, and spit everywhere and it seems like 90% of public restrooms in China don’t have soap.
If Chinese people want to be clean and hygenic then why don’t they wash their hands with soap???
Yeah I don’t really get the squat toilets… very unusual, but ask any physician and they’ll tell you that the squatting position relieves the bowels better than sitting in a chair like posture.
I’ve been in semi-rural China for over two years now and I don’t mind the squat toilets.
I can live with the gag-inducing smell(for a short time!)
I carry tissue with me at all times.
I try not to look in the bin at the shitty and bloody paper.Or at the smears of the same on the walls.
But, why, oh why, can’t the Chinese put doors on toilets?
I’m a teacher, and every school I go to I have to share my toilet experience with my students.
The worst was a mosquito infested, hole in the ground.Trust me, mosquito bites on your bum aint fun!
The oddest thing is finding a loo with a door wide open and thinking it’s free, only to find a tiny Chinese woman glaring at you when you try to enter.
I guess with a population this large privacy is a luxury.
squatter toilets are ok if clean. They should make them deeper so the pee does not fly everywhere. When mopped they need a disinfectant. I feel sorry for the ayis that clean them. Most of the time they have a dirty mop which they rinse out in the sink then wring out with their bare hands after mopping the squatters. Disgusting.
They don’t understand the mop buckets with the place to squeeze the excess water out. I got some for the company where i work as the cleaner had sore hands. People just threw the tea in the bucket and used the bit that wrings the water out of the mop to catch the tea leaves…..