Adventures in China

The New York Times reported, in May of 2002, that China is finally starting to get western style toilets installed, especially in Beijing.

I'm not sure what I think about this evolution. Traditionally, people have used squat toilets in China. While squat toilets can be a little awkward at first, I think it is relatively easy to get used to them and I think they are more sanitary. I think there are far too many diseases that can be passed around in China and using a toilet seat in a public place seems a bit risky to me. Whenever I had the option between a squat toilet and a seated toilet, I always used the squat toilet.

There are a lot of different toilets in China, and a number of them could use upgrades, in my opinion, but not necessarily to seated toilets. The vast majority of Chinese people who live in villages use basic latrines. They often have a permanent structure built around them, with signs for men or women, but they are just a hole in the ground. These toilets are shared by a lot of people in the village and they are emptied with a shovel. The wastes are used as fertilizer in farming (this is called "night soil" and is the reason you shouldn't eat raw vegetables in China).

One step up is the public troughs used in cities. These are usually concrete structures with a little water trickling through to keep things moving. Often times there are not any stall doors.

More common in restaurants and schools are individual squat toilets. They usually don't have stall doors, but they are porcelain and have their own flush mechanism.

In many homes, people don't have any restroom facilities at all. If they do, they either have porcelain squat toilets or western toilets. Western toilets can also be found in any hotel that accepts foreign guests and many of the tourist attractions. At the nicest hotel I stayed at in China, there was a woman who worked in the lobby bathroom who would go in and clean the toilet and arrange the toilet paper after every use. Every use.