I did my homework before embarking on a trip to China. One thing I’d heard about were public restrooms set up in ways unimaginable to us with respect to sanitation and privacy.

I found a thread on a Chinese Internet forum and was not disappointed. There were images of stalls with doors perched so high up that anyone could see your entire lower body just by walking by. I saw a stall with a door, but no wall. Most surprising of all was a toilet overflowing to the extent that it filled up the room with water and . . . I don’t even want to know.

What I actually found out in the suburbs of China was different, and I was surprised more by the locals than by the restroom layout. I walked in on a man doing #2 with the stall door wide open, and on another doing his business while squatting atop the seat of a Western-style toilet.

Neither man batted an eye, and I felt my dignity fly out the window. In its place was a nasty stench and memories I can’t erase.

Source: tt.mop (Chinese)


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