Stinky Bathrooms in China - Discussions During Lunch

Have you ever been interviewed about the quality of public restrooms in a city? How about during lunch… We were today. It started out like this: I was minding my own business… then the other guys decided to go to lunch (like most days). We decided to go to the classic Golden Elephant. The new Ben was chatting on his mobile phone with a friend of his who works for a radio station in Indonesia as we were leaving the office. She is writing a story about Beijing public toilets. Yes. Public toilets. The new Ben decided it would be a great idea to have her conduct the interviews during lunch time. Reader, have you seen Beijing toilets? If not, check a few out and get back to me. Then tell me if it is a good idea to talk about them during lunch. Lets see, some things we mentioned: - A place for Beijinger’s to congregate and shoot the brieze (while squatting and doing their business). Chatting about old times, current events, spitting (hmm, they do this everywhere, not just restrooms), oh, and reading the newspaper. - Absolutly reaking (smell) - Poor dranage - solid human waste builds up after time. Makes a great photography subject - The bringer of life (my personal favorite) - lots of flying and crawling things being born in these restrooms. worms, nats, roaches, galore! - Floors are often covered in a thin layer of urine. Provides a nice baseline for the flavor of the air. You know, there is nothing like going to the local public restroom, dodging the urine spills while drunk, to squat for 30 minutes while reading the newspaper! Well, thats about all that I can think of… we discussed all of this while enjoying an indian/thai food buffet. Oddly, I didn’t need to puke.