Maybe don't read this if you are about to eat...
I genuinely just googled 'How to use a squat toilet in China'. Thankfully the results were useful (and cartoonised). The pictures of the injuries some people have sustained squatting on top of a western toilet are interesting though (as long as you're not squeamish). I feel like my childhood refusal to pee in a bush during days out has come back to bite me.
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Squat-Toilet (useful life skill to have in the bank).
Using public toilets here are an experience. Anywhere within a 50m radius of one (even the female ones) fills your nostrils with that lovely (horrific) urinal smell you get when you walk past some dodgy men's toilets - not pleasant.
I will also forever see toilet paper as a luxury - no matter how close the texture is to sandpaper (ok maybe I won't find that luxurious). Toilet paper is not something you get in the toilets here - it's a case of bring your own or wallow in your own unprepared-ness. You also have to put your toilet paper in a bin and not down the hole -something I can't get used to - I hate to think how fragile the plumbing is here if it can't cope with a bit of toilet paper! Heaven forbid you drop anything valuable or important down there - you ain't getting it back!
I genuinely used a toilet the other day and saw the building in a whole new luxurious and lavish light purely because they had toilet roll and soap! I can see that becoming the gold standard for anywhere I visit - if there's toilet roll and soap its getting at least a 3 star rating!
Soap is another thing that they don't seem to believe in - hand hygiene is not peddled here like it is in the west! I'm not quite sure how the population aren't all doubled over with some nasty infection of some sort! Maybe you don't get hand soap because due to the sheer numbers of people it's not an economically viable option but I thought soap would at least be a teacher perk! I can see my desk and all my bags growing a collection of toilet paper and soap.
Here they also don't have the same legislation that there is in the UK in regards to having toilets in restaurants. You go to the fanciest restaurants here and they don't have their own toilet - you have to go along the street to one of the public ones. No wonder there are some many eateries here - they don't have the extra expense of plumbing in a toilet! Therefore every toilet passed is playing chicken with your bladder!
Going back to people squatting on western toilets. My students were clueless when I tried to describe a western toilet to them - surely they must have seen one. This means that a picture of a toilet is definitely cropping up in one of my lessons and probably a how to guide on how to use one - I now feel like it's my public duty!
So in summary, don't forget you hankies and use every toilet you see!
G x
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