[A] recently-opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290 square feet....
"We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist area where the bathroom is located. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."
Spreading toilet culture, eh? Well, I hope other countries take up the challenge and try to entertain us with bathrooms.
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And I suppose that it comes with a camera including a chip that will recognize if the tourist using the urinal is wearing a 'Free Tibet' or '6-4-89' t-shirt, in which case a spring will cause the jaws of the crocodile to suddenly snap shut?
Meanwhile, in other Althouse related news,
for every post about scientific research there comes an equal and opposite study refuting it.
Not hard to explain though. Obviously the author of the original book never paid attention to male lawyers at work, and the author of the study did.
Great.
Now there will soon be divisive:
-- upper toilet culture
-- middle toilet culture
-- lower toilet culture
This of course portends the start of a great movement.
B:
To say nothing of a revival of the 'trickle down' theory of how resources pass from the top layer of society down to the bottom.
I was really hoping the article would have pictures (not when anyone was using the toilets, mind you, but just so we could look at the odd designs).
What Kev said.
I wanted pictures!
I kinda like French urinals. They are found in odd places like the corner of a parking lot. Two walls, no roof and a trough along the base of the walls. Friendly, casual, open to the sunny skies and fluffy clouds. Good for a moment of meditation, if you can ignore the people walking by...
The Madonna Inn is #1.
Then again, you have to wonder what foreigners think when they see American urinals with plastic drain covers that feature targets (not so bad) or open mouthed portrayals of famous people.
What one culture thinks is bizarre may be another culture's humor.
Toilet culture may wind up being either "high bowl" or "low bowl," depending...
Here is something for those of you who enjoy a challenge. All very neat and clean and Swiss, though, eh?
"After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."
I guess the Chinese have a greater ability to find happiness wherever it lands. Back when we lived in Africa, I found it amusing that the only matches you could find to buy were the Chinese-made "Double Happiness" brand. While the matches did work, I always found double happiness a bit much to ask from a mere match.
Noting specifically, that this is in China, the "Toilet Culture" makes a little bit of sense.
My wife and I recently went to China to adopt, and in many non-urban or non-westernized areas, there were no western style toilets. Instead, they have what were affectionately known among our travel group as "Squattie Potties"
Basically, a hole in the ground/floor that you squat over while you do the deed.
To give you an idea of how widespread the use of squattie potties were, even the US consulate in Guangzhou (probably the most westernized place in the whole country) had to have bilingual signs in the restrooms asking people not to stand on the toilet seats, because many visitors wouldn't know what a western style sit-down toilet was for.
And of course, even with the sign, there were shoe prints on the toilet seats anyway.
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