Yes, this is a post about toilets in China. It sounds ridiculous but it was the only thing that strongly surprised me on my trip through this huge and fascinating country. Everyone who ever went to Asia surely knows that there is a difference between western toilets, on which you can sit down quite comfortably in case they are clean, and asian toilets which are more like a hole in the floor. But then, there are chinese toilets. Quite a number of public toilets in China are more like a trench which is parallel to a wall. There are little walls that form small compartments. In there, one has to squat down in order to use this sort of toilet. Every three minutes or so, there is a stream of water flowing through the trench. In case you’re at the last compartment, your backside might become a bit more wet than expected. In case you’re at the first compartment, you will see everything pass underneath you in this moment. Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the important detail: there are no doors to the compartments!
Oh, and you should bring your own toilet paper as well.
The farther to the west you are going, the more of these toilets you will encounter. The (probably) only exceptions are the Hutongs (traditional housing quaters) in Beijing. Most people there don’t have toilets in their house so they use the public, doorless ones in their street, where they might meet their neighbours by chance. If you are using one of those toilets in the morning, you will see people sitting there using their smartphones, texting and watching TV series.
Toilet without door in China
Toilet in China
How to deal with this as a european person?
Chinese people have a strong sense of community. You should join them in whatever they are doing in order to really learn about their culture and the life realities in this stunnning country. Don’t be a tourist, be a traveler. Don’t be just another european person who avoids unfamiliar things because they are just too scared of the unknown and too stuck within their own cultural representations.
So, do you have your tissues ready?
The Chinese Lantern 