China Trip Part 5 Toilets in China "the real story" and the "China Shake"

Ok,so this may not be the most glamorous part of the China Trip post, but it is a subject that you should be aware of in an effort to manage your expectations.

The good new is, I have never seen a place where there are as many public bathrooms as there are in China, there are reasons for this. One reason is that some homes in China have no bathrooms. As a result, they use public bathrooms. I think another reason is to keep people from using alleys and improve public health. Whatever the case, we never had trouble finding a bathroom.

Chinese bathroom generally are different from ours. Instead of a regular toilet they use what are termed "squatty potties". These are toilets essentially built at floor level that require you to squat to do your business. These are not limited to China. I have used them in Europe, Japan, and other areas of the world. You will even find them on the high speed Bullet Train. Tip: The handicapped stall always has a regular toilet, so limp when you go in the bathroom.

There are other differences I found in China toilets. First,there is only one toilet paper dispenser as you walk into the bathroom and none in the stalls. You have to gauge your toilet paper usage prior to locking the door. A word of caution, keep toilet paper with you because many times bathrooms will be out of TP. Second, toilet paper should not be flushed. All signs ask you to put used toilet paper in the indicated baskets. (I know what you are thinking, and yes many bathrooms have a challenging bouquet).

What is the "China Shake"? As we traveled around China and used the restrooms we of course always washed our hands (if you don't loose bowels to you). We found about 50% of bathrooms had no paper towels and 48% had towel dispensers but no paper towels. I might say that most had the blowing air machines of which 70% were not effective and the other 30% did not work. As a result, when you came out of the bathroom you would shake your hand vigorously, thus the "China Shake". It is a good idea to raid the Starbucks napkin dispenser for future travel.

Now that know the score, you can stop worrying about bathrooms in China. YEH!!!