I have written before about sanitary arrangements and this essay is a work-in-progress, started on the grounds that I will extend it once it is begun.
What you have above is a standard - literally, being an American Standard model - toilet for No2s. The gents’ urinal is much as in the west but generally fitted badly. The one pictured here is within the Main School in the Science labs. It is unusual in that the flush works an
d it is very much cleaner than most. On our third floor the similar construct is sheet steel, but has been laid (not ‘to falls’) so that the urine doesn’t head to the drain. Result then that that corner of the building stinks, even when some aware person uses a bucket to flush the channel. More commonly than not, toilets smell here, irrespective of the time of year.
Western toilets are to be found. Here’s a nice, clean one from our flat (see essay 46) in ZhaoQing.
Below and right is an extreme example found at one of the tourist spots outside Xi’an. The holes are over a five metre drop (it looked a lot further). The toilets in school in Xi’an were uniformly disgusting, giving new meaning to high summer. I’ve written before (Fre
sh Air 38, the Cleaner 34) about the use of cleaning materials - they are for sale, but somehow frowned upon publicly.
I have to say that the flush on the western-style toilets is remarkably quiet. After long years of being aware that, if someone went for bladder relief at night, then all were aware it had happened, here one could leave all the doors open and no-one would waken at the noise. I can hope that things have changed in britain, but I doubt that the rate of replacement is high enough to have made a difference. The life of a whole building here is less than the expected life of a loo in Britain.
At the Centre in Qingdao we replaced the floor based units as shown at the top with western toilets. Three months later we changed them back. Why: because the kids simply refused to recognise what they were supposed to do with them; none of the staff realised that the kids needed teaching - or, if they did, did nothing about it. What happened was apparently a common response. The boys, wanting a urinal that works, lift the seat and then stand on the edge of the bowl so as to pee between their feet. Thus a common sight is shoe prints under the rim.1
Other changes of use include throwing tea leaves into the bowl; not looking to see if the flush was effective (that adds to the smell factor); accepting that the door doesn’t work; fag ends anywhere; exhortations not to put toilet paper into the bowl but into the bin provided (adds to the smell, but far too much paper is used to flush away). Oh, and there’s only very rarely any toilet paper, so you carry some everywhere you go. Well, those with poor bladder control do.
More to follow. Perhaps
DJS 20131226
1 I offer that as a new phrase for you to find uses for.
How do you know an Chinese student has been to the restroom? Shoe prints under the rim. How do you know an elephant has been? You don’t; elephants don’t wear shoes.
Two pictures taken from the same toilet in QD town centre. Read them and weep.
