What are the things you think you must do if you travel to or live in China?

[Johnny20270]

Best to think of the positives: the pressure of your leg against your abdomen cleans out the appendix, lessening the risk of appendicitis, posture is similarly more evolutionally efficient.

 

 

There is nothing positive at all about squatter toilets. I hate them! They are are diabolical and filthy.  

 

I would avoid them as much as you can, i.e. available of your hotel rooms. Maybe go to shopping centers etc They usually have one stall that is westernized from what I have seen.

 

Oh and don't forget, you need to bring your own tissues

 

Also I would say, just do a quick run through of main nightlife tourist areas. Good if you want to constantly get harassed by touts, people aggressively trying to get you into their bar, or someone ramming a $1 cheap plastic toy into your face. Same experience in Eqypt, Greece, Spanish beach resorts etc

 

As for parks I would go to somewhere like Taoranting park rather than beihai. I can't see the attraction of that place at all. Any time I was in taoranting gongyuan, I never saw touts, a westerner and its good for seeing daily life, such as people singing, dancing, playing games etc. People do actually leave you alone and anyone talking to you is not trying to befriend you or scam you like you get many times in renmin park in Shanghai 

[imron]

There is nothing positive at all about squatter toilets. I hate them! They are are diabolical and filthy.

Squatters are great.  Some might be dirty, but at least your skin doesn't have to touch anything.  In China especially, I vastly prefer them to sitters.

[Johnny20270]

or maybe its because I am not that flexible and staying in the forward position is a struggle. 

 

also there is a danger of a splashback lol

[imron]

The biggest danger with a squatter is leaving your phone/wallet/keys in your pocket and then having them slip out in to the bowl.  Never happened to me, but almost has on a few occasions.

[abcdefg]

I've just finished a long trip, mostly by bus, into the back country of SE Yunnan. Had my fill of those nasty roadside poo troughs where the bus stops outside of town and everyone must rush to squat side by side. Most of the guys also light up a smoke. Some check their phones so as not to make eye contact. Flies are buzzing and swooping, drawn by the stench.

 

Not a good place to pause, take a deep breath, and ponder the meaning of life. Not a good place to read The New York Times.

[liuzhou]

 

The biggest danger with a squatter is leaving your phone/wallet/keys in your pocket and then having them slip out in to the bowl. Never happened to me, but almost has on a few occasions.

 

Indeed. I have one friend (Chinese, so you think she would be more of an expert) who has managed to donate two iPhones to the sewage system just this year. I've had a few key close mishaps in squatters, but the only time I actually lost anything was when I dropped a compact camera into the western style facility at home. I was able to retrieve it but it never worked again.

[anonymoose]

So if your iPhone falls in, do you retrieve it, or do you write it off?

[roddy]

Retrieve it, it's not a Chinese-forums.com approved flushable item. 

[liuzhou]

 

So if your iPhone falls in, do you retrieve it, or do you write it off?

 

Depending on the design of the facility, it may or not be retrievable. Many, if not most, squatters that I have encountered do not have u-bends but deliver straight into the sewers, removing all practical chances of retrieving anything.

[Silent]

 

 

There is nothing positive at all about squatter toilets. I hate them! They are are diabolical and filthy.

From the viewpoint of personal hygiene squatters are better then western toilets. Of course if cleaning is poor/non-existent as seems to be the case in many places in China this is a different matter. 

 

I agree they're not too comfortable (oftentimes this is amplified due to hygienic conditions), it is a matter of practice but also the design of the foot placements make a fair difference.

 

The tissues issue is of course fairly common in public restrooms all over the globe.