No More Squat Toilets at Beijing Olympic Venues

[krykrykrynunit]

Beijing has 5,200 public toilets, more than any city in the world. There are cultural differences between Chinese and Westerners, Chinese are more used to squat toilets.

Beijing organisers are refitting the toilets at three main Olympic venues after complaints from foreign athletes about having to squat, an official said on Wednesday.

Most toilets in China are still of the squat rather than sit-down variety, as spectators and competitors at recent test events in otherwise state of the art venues like the "Water Cube" aquatics centre discovered.

"In my personal point of view, there are cultural differences between Chinese and Western people. Chinese are more used to squat toilets," said Yao Hui, a senior official responsible for the management of Olympic venues.

"Toilet alteration projects at the Bird's Nest (National Stadium), the Water Cube and National Indoor Stadium are ongoing and if technical conditions permit, all the toilets in these stadiums will be changed."

A similar project will be expanded to more of the 31 venues in the city, he added.

"We will change the toilets in as many as we can, especially those for the key clients, athletes, Olympic family members and the media."

Beijing has 5,200 public toilets, the Beijing Evening Post reported earlier this month, more than any city in the world.

Yao said he believed that eventually, the majority of Chinese would use the sit-down variety of toilet, as people do in large parts of the developed world.

"The Olympics is an opportunity to speed up the transition," he said.

The Beijing Olympics run from August 8 to 24.

source-asianoffbeat

[collegeboy]

i admire the seriousness they're taking the olympics with.
ever since the games were decided to take place in Beijing,they have been training cooks to prepare west-style fast food,to avoid feeding westerns scorpians.

[MisuzuChan]

FINALLY. THE SQUAT TOILETS ARE GONE. I'm happy and will be glad to go back to China now. The encounter with squat toilets 3 years ago was frightening. It's cause I've been in Canada for my whole life almost.. not used to "squat toilets".

I'm glad that the Olympics is changing Beijing so drasticly, BUT I believe that China should still keep it's culture (especially it's cuisine) and not westernize it >__<;

[gensoumaden]

LOL!.. They are going to hav proper toilets now.. =P

[DEPTHSING]

LOL!.. They are going to hav proper toilets now.. =P

proper toilets? well...did u heard that u can dispose of the used tissue paper down the toilet bowl and u have to place them in a bin beside the toilet bowl(for toilets in china and sum oth places) wait till the paper accumulates and the toilet stink like hell.

yea, its a slight improvement that there are sitting toilets, but i've heard of pple that squat on sitting toilets, thus making the seat dirty. the next person who sits on it gets his arse dirty. at least u dun get that wif squat toilets. there are always pros and cons with every idea.

[chiongster]

yea, its a slight improvement that there are sitting toilets, but i've heard of pple that squat on sitting toilets, thus making the seat dirty. the next person who sits on it gets his arse dirty. at least u dun get that wif squat toilets. there are always pros and cons with every idea.

But then again, maybe they have something called toilet paper around. They can use toilet paper to wipe the rim of the bowl before sitting on it.

[Yochoko]

LOL. I'm rather surprised that they didn't think about it before installing any toilet cabinets. Kinda dumb to install ONLY one style out of two different kinds. They can always have both styles. Silly...