Chinese Toilets

[david_dawei]

I wonder if the user of the 'squatter' is supposed to squat for #1 as well ?

 

My guess is no.. only because of all the filthy, soaking floors I saw...

You would if you are a woman

I guess I should of specified gender ....

 

That reminds me of how many times I saw or used a stall that was 'unisex' .

[tonado]

I bet China is even worst. I carried Purell to wash my hand when I was in China.

 

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http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/20...n_hand_washing/

 

Survey: Hong Kong men lax on hand washing

 

May 10, 2005

 

HONG KONG --Nearly a third of Hong Kong men don't wash their hands after using the washroom, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Hong Kong Toilet Association.

 

The observations of 361 washroom users also found only 4 percent of women failed to cleanse their hands afterward.

 

"After looking at the results, women may laugh at their male counterparts, and hopefully that will help remind them to keep up their personal hygiene," Dr. Lo Wing-lok said.

 

The study said people who use toilets with automatic faucets and paper towels are more likely to clean their hands.

[david_dawei]

Maybe if the water was clean enough to drink, they might think it is clean enough to use for sanitation...

[tonado]

China in midst of toilet modernization

 

By Elaine Kurtenbach, AP Business Writer | May 14, 2005

 

SHANGHAI, China --It's an image that Shanghai's aggressively modern leaders want to shed: people rinsing out their chamber pots in alleys in the shadows of ultramodern skyscrapers. The city of 20 million, standard-bearer of communist China's march into capitalism, is in the midst of a massive toilet modernization. It wants anyone without a toilet at home to have a public facility a few steps away, and offers a hot line for those who can't find one.

 

This month Shanghai hosted the World Toilet Expo and Forum in hopes of getting advice on how to spruce up its loos. "We have observed that the state of public toilets, especially men's toilets, is not up to standard and poses quite a challenge," Hong Hao, deputy secretary general of Shanghai's city government, told the gathering.

 

Finding a toilet has traditionally been simply a matter of following one's nose.

 

Until recently, most were unheated, open-trench affairs. Stalls were only waist-high, sometimes without doors. Running water was rare. Toilet tissue and soap? Forget about it.

 

Now Shanghai says it has one toilet every 1,000 feet, with signs in universal symbols all over town showing the direction and distance to the nearest.

 

The city has built thousands of new apartment buildings with modern plumbing, but in many older housing districts, chamber pots are used at night, then toted to the nearest public toilet to be emptied next morning.

 

Public toilets in choice tourist locations tend to be clean and well-maintained. Some are assigned one to five stars under a municipal rating system based on features ranging from quality of toilet tissue to such high-tech touches as automatic flushing. The best charge up to 50 fen (6 cents).

 

Showcase public toilets include one in a suburban park designed to look, inside and out, like a grotto. Others have digital displays indicating how long each stall has been occupied. One Japanese restaurant, Hinotori, has goldfish aquariums beside the toilets and under the sinks.

 

Though the city is promising the latest in high-tech, the exhibits at the expo were strictly utilitarian -- no fancy sprays, fans or bottom heaters.

 

But there were plenty of anti-bacterial tiles, water-saving urinals, diaper-changing tables.

 

"We're showing only technology that makes sense," said Dominique Facon, vice president for marketing at American Standard in Shanghai, as technicians demonstrated a toilet that easily handled 14 golf balls in one flush.

 

The most unusual exhibit was a $2,300 composting unit that inventor Andy Tung says uses as little as 100 pounds of sawdust a year to convert waste into smell-free, safe organic fertilizer.

 

Tung said his company, Shinnichi Mechanical & Electrical Equipment Co., has installed trial versions in public washrooms in a Chinese city park, in an office building and in a Beijing residential district.

 

The exhibition was sponsored by the World Toilet Organization, which represents cleanliness groups in 17 countries and is based in famously tidy Singapore, which fines people who fail to flush public toilets.

 

"Better toilets will bring more tourists, investments, lower public health costs, and increase the economic and spiritual well-being of the people," the organization's founder, Jack Sims, told the gathering.

 

"Our happiness cannot be complete without a proper and pleasant toilet environment."

[bubbafred10]

I get used to it, and even wash down with a few scoops of water. Much cleaner than TP. Now I don't use my left hand for handling food anymore. I got stronger thigh muscles after doing a few of those squating excercise. I never thought I had a weak thigh.

[Mark62]

I own and use something that allows you to squat and sit at the same time. You sit and then put your feet on a stool that has two places for your feet; it straddles the USA sitting type of toilet and I pull it out when I need to do a bowel movement. It helps and takes less effort, and is more natual.

[Dan R]

Gee now that cool. No more problems getting rid of used golf balls.

 

"We're showing only technology that makes sense," said Dominique Facon, vice president for marketing at American Standard in Shanghai, as technicians demonstrated a toilet that easily handled 14 golf balls in one flush.

 

And the solution comes from an American company, where we know our business.

[Mick]

I got my foot stuck in a chinese toilet one time......Don't ask!

[Dan R]

Sorry but I just need to know if that was a public toilet.

[Mick]

Sorry but I just need to know if that was a public toilet.

If you consider a toilet in a crowded restaurant public, yeah, it was public.