Guest Post: Possible China export… gross toilets!!!

Due to having a long day today, and knowing an opportunity when I see it, I’ve decided to outsource today’s blog post to my sister who is visiting from the states. Her qualifications involve working with inner city youths in San Francisco, and being generally spiky (the latter being the more important.)

Enjoy! - Brad

As an American tourist in Beijing, or for that matter almost anywhere, there is always one thought which occupies the greater part of your mind: Where oh where can I find a decent toilet?  Indeed, much of my pre-trip preparation seemed to revolve around largely scatological needs.  Witness a partial list of goods packed in my suitcase:

 1 six pack of  travel size tissue packets (not just for noses!)

8 travel packs of Cottonelle brand flushable moist wipes valued at 2 dollars each (perhaps a little overboard but so far they have proved invaluable for hand sanitizing, sterilizing suspect surfaces and one particular crisis in a toilet stall at the Summer Palace.)

3 travel size bottles of hand sanitizer

1 tube of hand sanitizing spray (impulse buy)

1 tube of Lysol sanitizing wipes (in case something looks unsanitary)

1 map of Beijing that my Chinese friend Hua marked with areas most likely to have a “good” toilet.

 Now, perhaps I was somewhat over fastidious but fact is we Americans are addicted to our porcelain thrones.   Still, I think that “ye olde pit toilet” has quite a bit to offer America, particularly in public places where there is already little hope of a sanitary commode.  For example, in my stateside hometown of San Francisco, our sizable homeless population is creating an equally sizable public feces problem, one which our coin op toilet stalls are clearly not the answer to.  In a situation like this a good old open air hole in the ground may be just the thing.  Especially considering that the present situation involves certain neighborhoods having a “feces street.” (It’s funny cause its true! - BG)

There are other situations in which Americans can benefit from the Turkish toilet.   I don’t know about you but I hardly ever sit down in the average pub bathroom.  And I anticipate that as our national water resources become scarcer and scarcer Americans are on some level going to have to become less prissy when it comes to their fancy dancy flushing toilets.  Now while the day of the environmentally friendly compostable public squat toilets may still be far off, bums and barflys alike could benefit from the old science of hole digging.

- Erin Gardner