mrswdk wrote:Squatting is the healthiest way to poop:
Chinese toilet:
Western toilet:
The poor elderly folks. Have them squat? I've fallen and can't get up. Plus drowning could be a factor, but will keep healthcare costs down, once you factor in long term care.
*Warning: If your baby is large, it may require a second or third flush.
Serious question here. I don't know about everywhere, but just about every public toilet I've seen in Beijing and Shenyang, no matter how clean (or not) they may appear, smells like an open sewer. Even my in-laws' condo building, which was built around 2001 and has a sit-down toilet, has a smell of sewer gas in the bathroom. Do the Chinese just not understand p-trap technology? Doesn't anyone care about the stink? One toilet at the Summer Palace was so bad that it was difficult to be anywhere near it.
Personally, I can't use those toilets because an old knee injury makes it impossible for me to squat.
You used to live there? Some smell, some don't. The public ones I assumed it's just because so many people use them. I've never been to an apartment where the bathroom smelled.
mrswdk wrote:You used to live there? Some smell, some don't. The public ones I assumed it's just because so many people use them. I've never been to an apartment where the bathroom smelled.
I go there for a couple of weeks every two years. But the amount of use doesn't explain it, because I've been to bathrooms in Disney World, stadiums, trade shows, etc. where a lot of people are using them, and I've never smelled a bathroom in America that is as bad as your average one in China. (not counting port-o-pottys)
mrswdk wrote:You used to live there? Some smell, some don't. The public ones I assumed it's just because so many people use them. I've never been to an apartment where the bathroom smelled.
I go there for a couple of weeks every two years. But the amount of use doesn't explain it, because I've been to bathrooms in Disney World, stadiums, trade shows, etc. where a lot of people are using them, and I've never smelled a bathroom in America that is as bad as your average one in China. (not counting port-o-pottys)
I don't know. I don't design toilet plumbing systems. All I know is that the only time I've come across bathrooms like that in Beijing was in public bathrooms that didn't appear to be cleaned very well and possibly also had shitty plumbing. Clubs, bars, restaurants and people's apartments were always fine, in my experience.
mrswdk wrote:You used to live there? Some smell, some don't. The public ones I assumed it's just because so many people use them. I've never been to an apartment where the bathroom smelled.
I go there for a couple of weeks every two years. But the amount of use doesn't explain it, because I've been to bathrooms in Disney World, stadiums, trade shows, etc. where a lot of people are using them, and I've never smelled a bathroom in America that is as bad as your average one in China. (not counting port-o-pottys)
I don't know. I don't design toilet plumbing systems. All I know is that the only time I've come across bathrooms like that in Beijing was in public bathrooms that didn't appear to be cleaned very well and possibly also had shitty plumbing. Clubs, bars, restaurants and people's apartments were always fine, in my experience.
Part of it may be that squat toilets leave your submarine out in dry-dock, as opposed to being immediately submerged. But I've been to some places that were practically vacant, and even bathrooms that aren't getting much use still smell like a barnyard.
mrswdk wrote:Maybe you should go to nicer restaurants
I guess I haven't used restaurant bathrooms that much. I try to avoid using bathrooms outside of our hotel as much as I can. I was referring to things like airports, shopping malls, amusement parks, historic sites, etc. Also, my wife had to go to a Beijing hospital briefly, and said that the bathroom there was completely disgusting.
Like I said, those are public ones which will experience volumes of use (even if they're quiet when you go). Tourist sites in particular probably have really crappy (another shit pun) antiquated systems which are probably still creaking under the 3 tons of sewage that got dumped (can keep this up all day ) on them during the last National Day.
Airports I have no idea. Never noticed a problem at Beijing Capital. Are you talking about other places?