OF CHINA TOILETS……
One of the more decent door-less toilets. Others are just too disgusting to show.
All nicely tiled up but why no door la?
All nicely tiled up but why no door la?
The toilet situation in Chengdu (and I believe in many cities in China) is a paradox in the outskirts of the city. I went to China filled with many ‘horrified’ stories about China’s door-less toilets in many tourists areas outside of the city or toilets with open drains where ladies squat in a row so I actually went armed with my trusty old umbrella, in case I should need to do some covering up! So it was with great surprise that when I visited the first tourist site about 40 km out of the city on my second day in Chengdu, I found the toilets were spick and span, and with infra-red sensors that actually worked, unlike many of those in Malaysia! However, a short distance away from the tourist site where we stopped for lunch, I discovered that, true enough, the toilets were without doors, with no flush whatsoever, and stank to hell! And this happened throughout the span of our visits to various other tourist sites – one minute you have first-class toilets and at the next stop, it was back to basics again. It was only much later that it struck me! Most of the places where the toilets were with doors and modern infra-red flushes were those sites that were designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO! But once outside of this boundary, it was back to ‘open-plan’! hehehe :p. We were lucky because my daughter and I had each other to stand guard over the other, making sure others don’t come near enough to get a view, while holding our breath!
But what I couldn’t understand was that even with toilets where there were doors many of the ladies choose not to close them! So you strode in, thinking there was nobody and then smack in your face, will be this lady squatting right in there in full view for you to see! Choy!! So after 2 or 3 times of such misadventure, I learnt the art of walking pass these toilet cubicles and, with the corner of my eye, sensed whether there was any ‘image’ or movement and if so, to walk straight through to the next one and so on. ;-)
After a while, it became a game between my girl and me when we needed to make a toilet stop to guess whether it was going to be door-less or otherwise!
The interesting thing was, many of these door-less toilets were nicely built, all tiled up so why did the authorities decide to save on the door?
... AND SPITTING CHINAMEN!
Another situation which I just can’t get over with in China was the 'forever-spitting' Chinamen! And they spat just about anywhere, anytime - while they were walking, cycling, driving and even in the bus! Yucks!! Where in the world do they find all the sputum in their system? For the fun of it, my girl and I tried to work out some from our throats and guts but it was in vain! Hahaha! What was especially disgusting was when you were walking through this beautiful World Heritage designated site or forest, enjoying the scenery (and you could tell the place were constantly swept to keep the place clean as there was hardly any fly-away leaves or rubbish) and then right in front of you, there will be this man that went ‘krrrrrkk… puiitt’! And splat!, the sputum landed just in front of you, missing you by inches!
After sometime, I tried to avoid walking behind any Chinamen and it soon became a habit that I kept looking down to avoid stepping on any of this disgusting stuff. :-(
After sometime, I tried to avoid walking behind any Chinamen and it soon became a habit that I kept looking down to avoid stepping on any of this disgusting stuff. :-(
One of the many beautiful scenes in the tourist sites around
Sichuan Province. This one is taken in Leshan City, where the
biggest carved stone Buddha in the world resides and
is a designated World Heritage site by UNESCO.
Toilets here were excellent. :-)
November 2009
