It keeps taking me days to put together posts so I’m going to try to get used to writing quicker by firing off a few quick ones of random odd things I see while I’m travelling in China. In that vein, the first subject is toilets. I ran into these in Japan and Korea so I guess they’re not exclusive to China but this time I actually got around to taking a picture. So the Asian toilet:
As you can see someone seems to have decided to cut all “unnecessary” parts and reduce the toilet to it’s essence, a hole in the ground. I guess it makes sense since you don’t really want to touch anything in a public toilet. It (and perhaps the lower average weight) also explains why I see a lot more people over here squatting during normal circumstances. I guess it would make you ready for camping too although there doesn’t seem to be much of that here.
Another interesting point is the garbage can next to the toilet. I had never ran into this before and had no idea it meant you were supposed to throw your toilet paper in there until I mentioned to my fiancee that they sure expected people to have a lot of garbage in the bathroom. I may have left a string of clogged toilets behind me before that. Anyway, it’s surprisingly easy to get used to although I still forget once in a while (no I don’t go fishing. it seems a couple misplaced sheets don’t hurt). I don’t think it’s a habit I’ll carry back to the US though.
Ryan | 03-Jul-10 at 5:56 pm | Permalink
1. The squatting toilet is cheaper thus more popular than the sitting toilet. In fact, there are cases of people squattting on a sitting toilet simply beause they don’t know what to do with a sitting toilet
2. After you’re done, you’re supposed to wash (both “there” and your hands). The garbage can is for paper you used for wiping your hand. There should be some sort of water source nearby. Toilet paper in that area of the world isn’t exactly soft for other familiar functions.
That’s my understanding of it. Hope it helps ^^