China scrambling to build western style toilet for Olympic after complaints by US and Europeans

These actually happen to be rather common in certain European countries that shall remain unnamed.

It's "not acceptable"? You sure? I live in a European Union country right now and I use one almost every day. Also, many places I have traveled in Europe use these as well...

Not sure where your generalization came from on that one...

Who cleans these things and how do they do it?

Can you put this things, like in a dining room and move right from the dinner chair and pinch a loaf?

Why do they have to scramble? The olympics are 5 months away. I think they've got plenty of time to order some toilets and put them in the olympic village.

Has any one on letsrun.com used one of these toilets and lost their balance and got dropped in the hole?

no squatters allowed wrote:

over a long trough or bowl-like 'toilet' that is on the ground.

I'm serious, where does the shit go from the bowl? Do the hire someone to take the bowl and whip the contents into the Yangtze or something?

They're not really holes. They're troughs that get flushed out periodically by a flow of water (like a trough urinal).

If you're squatting when the water flows, wheee! Look at all the doody!

no squatters allowed wrote:

What is common in China, when one has to go "#2", is known as a 'squat toilet', which is simply squatting (like a baseball catcher)

Based on the number of "poop on the run" threads here, I'd say this is the most common technique for letsrun posters as well.

Between this, the pollution, the Dhalai Lama and whacking

"Free Tibet" protestors around for all the World to see...not to mention revealing the route of the 2nd Olympic torch...this is just going to get better and better.

Now the State Dept is warning Americans that they'll have NO privacy in Beijing hotels. Oh what fun...

Beijing '08 = Berlin '36?

(And the USN just put two aircraft carriers off the Taiwanese coast? Whoo Hoo!)

i'm not sure where the information on this thread comes from, but i have stayed in hotels and dorms in various places in china (including beijing and other cities that were less developed) and there were western toilets. that was four years ago. china has already adapted to tourism. of course there won't be "western" toilets in really local spots, but no tourists will be going there anyway.

amksteeple wrote:

i'm not sure where the information on this thread comes from, but i have stayed in hotels and dorms in various places in china (including beijing and other cities that were less developed) and there were western toilets. that was four years ago. china has already adapted to tourism. of course there won't be "western" toilets in really local spots, but no tourists will be going there anyway.

Agreed. I got back recently from a trip to Beijing. There is at least one "Western" toilet available in most rest rooms. Some of the businesses are in older districts so there is the squatting toilet. And, it's pretty much the Americans who are not used to this . . . we're the only country that doesn't employ the squat and squirt method. Also, the Chinese DO have modern plumbing; you can flush after each use of the toilet. Advanced, huh?! Oh, the one down side was the lack of toilet paper. Some places didn't have it at all, while others had a bin outside of the stall, so if you forgot to grab it on the way in you were SOL.

Squat toilets rock! check out the wikipedia page for more info on how awesome they are. who doesn't want to reduce hemorrhoids and other colorectal disorders, poop faster and cleaner, and not worry about water splasing back up your b-hole. Not me, that's for sure. That's why I squat whenever possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squat_toilet

I've only used one of these toilets in the Middle East (Jordan) but we always referred to them as "Turkish toilets." Apparently that is not a universal designation.

The Chinese could just add plumb bobs to the Athlete's welcome kits. That might be cheaper than installing Western toilets.

You get used to it....its cleaner (your body doesn't touch any part of the toilet), and the mechanics of it make the process much faster than a western toilet.

The absence of TOILET PAPER, however, will be a much graver concern. I am sure if they stock all the lavatories w/ paper, most of the local citizenry will steal it before it can be used.

Thanks for the photo evidence. I honestly was picturing a trough, like the kind you would find a bunch of dudes pissing in at the bathroom of a sprint car race. It seemed pretty ridiculous to have a bunch of dudes rocking deuces right next to each other into a long steel trough. I didn't realize they had stalls.

Apparently I'm dumber than hell.

Squating to poop? Those chinese are barbaric!

Moscow had open troughs with armrails to hold yourself up while to made your Kremlin statement.

U.S. and Canadians are massive fat blobs who can't wipe their ass while squat and would tip over if they tried. That would be the best thing for such a bunch of pathetic crybabies.

"People experiencing diarrhea can spray fecal matter over the floor and onto the back of the ankles and/or clothing."