The “New Beijing” is not ignoring one of life’s most basic
considerations, the toilet, which is something that many a foreign
tourist will be happy to know. The toilet -- once the downfall of
Beijing’s tourist industry - has been elevated to a position where
it now merits its own star-rated system. Over the next two years
the city plans to build 64 four-star, 197 three-star and 118
one-star toilets at all its major tourist attractions.
Seventy star-rate toilets already have opened at scenic spots like
the Summer Place, the Badaling section of the Great Wall, the
Palace Museum and the Beijing Working People’s Palace of
Culture.
All of this diminishes the chances of any foreign tourist
encountering the dreaded Gonggongcesuo (public toilet in the oriental
style which requires squatting over an open trough) thanks to a
determined Beijing Tourism Administration who heard the tourist
cries of woe and took action.
For years, toilets were a major tourist complaint. In fact
one-third of all complaints received by the Beijing Tourism
Administration were about toilets. And those complaints were not
minor, according to Zhou Shuqi, the deputy director of
Planning-Statistics Department of the Beijing Tourism
Administration.
Zhou said that what tourists objected to can be described in four
words: “smell” (tourists said they could find a toilet by its
smell); “jump” (once inside they jumped to avoid stepping on
residue left by previous occupants), “weep” (they wept when they
squatted down and could see maggots in the pit below) and “smile”
(when they looked up they smiled in embarrassment when they found
they were not alone but with many other people who were staring at
each other face-to-face.)
Zhou said the last problem seemed particularly difficult for
foreigners who like and expect privacy in toilets, while Chinese
toilets were totally open.
The Beijing Tourism Administration formed in 1987, from the
beginning earmarked considerable funds for toilets. The problem,
according to Zhou Shuqi, was that in the early days of China’s
tourist industry, attention was placed on setting up travel
services rather than on the facilities themselves where the main
consideration for toilets for some time was that they met city
sanitation codes.
Tourism officials nationwide soon learned that what was considered
good enough for the average Chinese citizen would not do for
foreign tourists. Acknowledging the complaints, in the early 1990s
the National Tourism Administration launched a Three-Year Plan to
Renovate the Public Bathrooms at Scenic Attractions. Around 2
million yuan (US$ 242,000) went into the first batch of new toilets
in Beijing such as at the
Great Wall,
Summer Palace and
Forbidden City.
Testimony to the fruits of these early efforts come from a critic
of the women’s bathroom at the Great Wall at thebathroomdiaries.com
The following comment also includes a word to the wise - Even as
the toilet situation improves in China, carry toilet paper with
you. Under the new star-rated system, three and four-star bathrooms
must have toilet paper available in each individual stall. However,
while one and two-star facilities must provide toilet paper, the
paper can be located in a central position in the room rather than
next to the toilet.
“Located along walk up to the Great Wall entrance at Badaling.
Fairly clean, with more squat-style than Western toilets. Private
stalls, but without toilet paper in each. Free toilet paper can be
obtained from a dispenser near the sinks. Hands-free automatic
sinks and air-dryers. Go early in the morning while the bathrooms
are still clean and bring your own paper just in case. Visited the
women's restroom--have no idea what the men's room is like.”
By
the mid-1990s the Beijing Tourism Administration working together
with the Forestry Bureau, Environmental Sanitation Bureau, Cultural
Relic Bureau and Municipal Management Committee poured millions of
dollars into toilet renovation.
During that period, Beijing invested about 40 million yuan (US$ 4.8
million) to renovate 119 tourists toilets to get them all to at
least the Category II (good) public bathroom standard set by the
Beijing Municipal Administrative Committee. After 1997, the Bejing
Tourism Administration continued to renovate some 20 tourist
bathrooms a year, at the cost of about 1.5 million yuan
(US$182,000) a year.
Then with the Beijing Olympic 2008 bid very much in mind, and with
the support of Zhang Mao, the vice-mayor of Beijing, the Beijing
Tourist Administration pulled out all the stops: It decided to
introduce a 4-star toilet system under a tourism star-rated toilet
construction committee with Zhang Mao as the director; Yu
Changjiang, the vice-director of Beijing Tourism
Administration, as the vice director and Zhou Shuqi as the
executive committee member in charge of all the specific works.
Helping to design the star-rating system for toilets were various
departments including the Municipal Administrative Committee,
Forestry Bureau, Municipal Quality and Technical Supervision
Bureau, Cultural Relic Bureau, Finance Bureau and heads of various
major tourist attractions worked together to come up with a plan
different from any before and based on similar considerations as
the plans for star-rated hotels.
The committee designed a 28-page Beijing Municipal Tourism
Attractions-Toilet Quality Assessment Report which provides
inspectors some 58 points including area size, hours, toilet paper,
mirrors, emergency call buttons, background music, soaps and other
lotions, building material, drainage, ventilation, landscaping,
etc. on which to award stars for bathrooms. For instance, point #3
is overall area. A one-star toilet facility must have at least 40
square meters; a two-star toilet must be over 60 square meters; a
three-star toilet must be over 80 square meters; and the four-star
must be over 100 square meters. Also, all levels must have a 4:6
ratio of men’s area to women’s area.
This brings up one of the differences in the new standards: The
women’s room is larger. Traditionally, the men’s toilet facility
was more than twice the area of the women’s; under the new system
the women’s bathroom is larger than the men’s. Zhou Shuqi, the
deputy director of Planning-Statistics Department of the Beijing
Tourism Administration, said that in feudal society women stayed at
home without any opportunity to work so there wasn’t much need to
consider them in public bathroom design. The new guidelines are
based on more than women’s change of status in society, he said,
they are based on scientific study that shows a woman on average
will spend two or three times more time using a toilet than does a
man. Hence the new ratio.
The star-rated toilets also consider the elderly and disabled as
well as children. From one-star to four-star, toilet facilities now
must at least have one stall especially designed for the
handicapped and as well as lower urinals for small boys. A platform
for changing infants is not required at the one and two-star level
but is required for the three and four-star bathrooms. The highest
rated toilets provide more, like lotions and hot towels, totally
different from the previous public bathroom standards.
In
two years, all the 747 toilets in 148 tourist attractions-or 95
percent-should be finished, according to Zhou, and the Tourism
Administration will then be continuing its 1.5 million yuan (US$182
thousand) investment in toilets as it had before.
At
this time some of the star-rated toilets require a small fee for
admission to pay for attendants and other expenditures, but the
goal is to have free access to all.
We
at china.org.cn decided we would like to check out one of the
highest-rated toilets, and we found one thanks to the good graces
of Wu
Weiping, vice director, of the Beijing Working People’s Palace
of Culture east of the Forbidden City. Already completed, these
toilets will be open in this fall.
Two-star toilet
Three-star toilet
Four-star toilet
Now that the toilet has achieved star-status in China, it might
be a good time to take an overview of the whole situation. After
all- China invented the toilet, invented toilet paper and long
before Thomas
Crapper is said to have invented his marvelous flush toilet,
emperors were using the flush and even more exotic devices to
enhance their palatial bathrooms. China has its toilet history,
literature, mythology and sociology. Our toilets have even inspired
philosophers.
History
According to archeological discoveries at the
Banpo relics site in Xi'an,
the first toilet in China can be traced back approximately 5,000
years. We know through similar discoveries that in the Western
Zhou Dynasty (BC c1,100-BC c771) and the Warring
States Period (BC 475-BC 221), toilets were in common use -
simple shafts used by one person or one family.
But much of recorded history in China as elsewhere relates not
to the common folk, but rather the elite whose stories reveal quite
a bit about the development of the toilet from its humble
beginnings outside the hog pen.
Modern-day European and American tourists to China who have cast
a wary eye at the unfamiliar "squat" style oriental toilet
(traditional in Japan and other part of Asia as well as in China)
cannot take comfort in what we believe is the first written
description of the toilet in Chinese history:
Jin Wengong, the monarch of the State of Jin and also the first
king of the Spring and Autumn Period (BC 770-BC 476), slipped into
the toilet shaft while peeing and drowned. This is according to the
Zuozhuan,
the first chronological history covering the period from BC 722 to
BC 464, presumably illustrating The Spring and Autumn Annals
and attributed to Zuo Qiuming, the official historian of the State
of Lu, but generally believed to have been completed in the early
Warring States Period (BC 475-BC 221).
Shi Chong of the Western
Jin Dynasty (265-316) had no such problems - it's said in
history books that his toilet chamber included a bed and that
whenever he went there to relieve himself he was attended by as
many as ten maids, who also saw that he got a change of clothes on
each occasion.
In fact, bathrooms of the rich and famous had become so
elaborate by the time of the Wei Dynasty (220-265), that visitors
were sometimes baffled by their arrangements. Wangdun, who would
marry Princes Jingyang, the daughter of Emperor Si Mayan, entered
the palace bathroom to find a beautifully decorated box hanging on
the wall in the toilet chamber that contained dates. "What a
wealthy family," he thought, "they even have the luxury of eating
dates while using the toilet." And he ate all the dates in the box.
But, actually the dates were provided only for people to stuff into
their nostrils to prevent inhaling any unpleasant odors. Wang Dun's
faux pas was discovered and became the cause of great merriment in
the palace.
Emperors beginning in the Han Dynasty ( BC 206-AD 24) had the
privilege of finding in their toilet facilities (xieqi). Such
things as jade urinal in the shape of a tiger cub, called a huzi,
which received the royal urine from its mouth, and loved doing so,
according to folk traditions. Of course, the emperor also had a
chamber pots (qingqi or hunqi) for more serious business. In the Tang
(618-907)and Song(960-1279)Dynasty,
hu (tiger) became a taboo word and instead both urinals and chamber
pots were referred to as ma (horse) implements, hence mazi and
matong. Of course, all this was long before 1859 when Queen
Victoria had her toilet decorated
in gold.
As early as the Han Dynasty, emperors were using the flush
toilet, according to archeologists who found one quite similar
to the kind we use today, with arm rests as well, in a tomb in the
Mangdang Hill in Shangqiu of central China's Henan
Province. It was part of an underground palace whose wealthy
owner thought his soul after death would need all the comforts of
home.
Philosophy
In the Warring
State Period (BC 475-BC 221), the Qin Dynasty scholar and prime
minister Li Si (?-BC 208) made a notable observation while on the
toilet. This was a traditional "squat" style oriental toilet, more
specifically a shaft with wooden boards on the top. When Li Si was
squatting there one day, the mice in the shaft got a start and took
off fast. He felt very sorry for those thin and small mice. But,
soon afterwards, Li Si came across some big and fat mice in the
storehouse, stealing rice. These mice showed no inclination to
stampede. On the contrary, with an air of contempt, they even
stared at Li Si. This discrepancy in mouse behavior bothered Li Si
until he realized the reason:
The mice in the toilet did not have it so good, so they were
alarmed while the mice in the storehouse had it great, so they were
calm and composed. And so it is with people, Li Si realized, that a
person has a sense of esteem or not according to his living
conditions.
So Li Si decided to leave the school of his teacher, Xunzi (BC
313-BC238) a philosopher and scholar of the late Warring States
Period to travel and seek his fortune. Xunzi asked how he could
venture out into society without finishing his learning. Li Si
answered what is the point of learning when one does not have
enough to eat? How can a person have dignity when his stomach is
empty? Li Si gave up his studies mid-stream to venture into the
world where he at some point met Emperor Qin
Shihuang (BC 259-BC 210), the first emperor of the Qin dynasty,
also called Yingzheng, who unified China for the first time in
history. Li Si later became a high-ranking official in the Qin
court. All this we learn from reading a biography of Li Si in
Shiji, the first history book written by Si Maqian. And so
we may take note of Li Si's ascension in life inspired by his
musings on the toilet.
Mythology
While Chinese written records relate rich and colorful stories
about the toilet, much went on before recorded history during a
time when people worshiped gods and goddesses, who seemed to be
everywhere. They might appear at any time or place in the human
world, the nether world, in a mountain, river,door, bed, the
kitchen range or even the toilet.
The legends of the Goddess
of the Toilet -- Zi Gu and Qi Gu -- were widely known in China
although the names were sometimes different. In some southern
places the Toilet Goddess was known as San Gu or
Kengsanniangniang.
The most important Toilet Goddess that people worshipped was Zi
Gu, who started out as a beautiful and well-educated lady who was
married to an actor and who lived in what is now Shandong Province
during the Tang
Dynasty (618-907) in the reign of Empress Wu
Zetian. Zi Gu became Toilet Goddess in the following way:
Li Jing, the official of the county, murdered Zi Gu's husband
and forced her to become his concubine. But Li's official wife
envied Zi Gu's beauty. So on the 15th day of the first lunar month,
the official wife killed Zi Gu in toilet. Zi Gu's wronged spirit
lingered there day and night, especially when Li Jing went to the
toilet. He heard Zi Gu's weeping and saw her ghost fighting with
his wife. When Empress Wu Zetian heard of the story, she conferred
on Zi Gu the title of Toilet Goddess. Later generations worshipped
Zi Gu on the
Lantern Festival (15th night of the 1st lunar month) by taking
out a puppet of paper or wood and saying, "Li Jing has gone away
with his official wife, let Zi Gu appear." If the puppet showed any
movement at that point, it was an indication that the Toilet
Goddess had arrived.
The Toilet Goddess takes on another form in the story of Qi Gu,
who was the concubine of Liu Bang (BC 256- BC 195), the founder of
the Western Han
Dynasty and the fisrt Emperor of the Han Dynasty (BC206-AD
220). Qi Gu had a fierce quarrel with the Empress Lu Hou over the
choice of the crown prince that engendered a deep hatred between
the two women. After Liu Bang died, Lu Hou took revenge by
degrading Qi Gu to the level of slave. But that wasn't enough.
Further, she cut Qi Gu's hands and feet off, cut out her eyes,
blackened her ears and cut out her tongue - to produce what she
called "human pig." And finally, Empress Lu Huo threw Qi Gu into a
toilet and then invited the new emperor and high-ranking officials
to have a look. It is said that the Emperor fainted at the sight.
This is a story from Shiji, written by Si Maqian.
Shen Kou (1031-1095), a statesman and scientist of the Northern
Song Dynasty(960-1127),reported that his relatives worshipped the
Goddess, and that they reported they really saw her. According to
the scholars Su Dongpo, one story reported that the Goddess once
took possession of the daughter of one Wang Lun who worshipped Zi
Gu. Moreover, everyone in the household caught sight of the Goddess
- at least above the waist. Her lower body was covered by
clouds.
Beijing's Public Bathrooms
In the Spring and Autumn Period (BC 770- BC 476), cities began
to appear, and with them came bathrooms -- usually built in small
residential compounds, a tradition that continued into the Sui(581-618)
and Tang (618-907) dynasties. Not until the Song Dynasty
(960-1279),did the occasional public bathroom begin to show up on
the main streets.
Privately owned public bathrooms also appeared during the Tang
(618-907) and Song
(960-1279) periods. These were built and managed by night-soil
collectors who, despite their low social status, made a
fortune.
In late Qing
Dynasty (1644-1911), most of the few public bathrooms were made
up of a shaft with two bricks on the topside and small walls on
four sides. Most people preferred chamber pots to toilets so they
could deal with everything at home and take the pots to the river
to be cleaned. Day by day and year by year, this undoubtedly caused
pollution problems.
Up to the early part of the 20th century, people still did not
pay much attention to the public toilet environment. Take Beijing,
For example. Only six or seven public bathrooms were available
along Changan Avenue, the main street of Beijing in the early 20th
Century.
According to historical records, the toilet in Beijing has a
history of over 3,000 years, which is as long as the history of the
city itself. The first toilet here was found in the Yan State relic
site in the village of Dongjialin in what nowadays is Fangshan
County in Beijing. As a major city with over 800 years of history,
Beijing has seen many powerful rulers come and go. None of them, as
far as we know, laid any importance to the public bathrooms used by
the common people. Of course, this might have something to do with
their own accommodations at the palace as mentioned in the history
section above.
So for quite a long period in history, the good citizens of
Beijing had to share one toilet, a kind of pit used by both men and
women, young and old. When one person went in, he or she had to
make a mark outside the door. And the next follower had to cough or
otherwise try to make clear whether or not somebody was inside to
avoid any embarrassment. The crucial time was in the morning, when
the line to use the bathroom might become quite long.
One example of Chinese cross talk, a comedy dialogue that is a
popular and complex art form in China, describes a typical morning
at the public bathroom in the old days of Beijing. In the morning,
everybody waited in line, waiting for their turn to use the
facility. When a young man moved to his turn in line, he shouted
back to the house, "Mom, it is our turn, after you. Hurry up."
However, after 1949 dramatic changes came to public bathrooms in
Beijing. And in the 1960s, with the development of social
collectivization, Beijing began to promote more toilets for the
public. Many public bathrooms were built along the main streets. At
that time, they were divided into the second-generation style and
third-generation style. The former one kept a bit of the old
tradition that required people to carry out the excrement and urine
in pots. The latter one could be flushed and had a center cesspool.
The latter ones are still being used in some old residences today
in Beijing.
The fourth-generation style of toilet was equipped with flush
facilities, stalls with doors and water taps.
Something should be clarified here about the lack of bathroom
stalls with doors which so many foreign tourists have found in
Beijing, and resented. This state of affairs has an historical
basis, the author believes
According to our textual research, it was the Koumintang
government that removed all the partition walls during the Civil
War in order to keep a lookout and prevent Communist Party members
from exchanging information.
Although the Kuomintang tactics may have restricted secret
exchanges, the tearing down of the stalls also provided a good open
public place for people to communicate and exchange views. So ever
since, public bathrooms in Beijing also have been friendly public
places where citizens could, while using the toilet, chat and
exchange views, drawing on the collective wisdom to gain all kinds
of useful ideas, and all because of no doors on the toilets.
In the 1990s, all the main streets of Beijing had public
bathrooms with modern flush toilets. And today, people can even see
hi-tech ecological public bathrooms in Beijing that are non-flush
to save water. The energy for lights and ventilation in these
toilets comes from solar energy, and the waste is disposed of
scientifically to make fertilizer.
Off course, it will be a long time before these hi-tech public
bathrooms are generally used in the whole city.
The Countryside
The city toilet revolution also has stirred toilet renovation in
the countryside.
Most Chinese farmers, deeply influenced by tradition, have stuck
pretty much to the old ways of doing things with the toilet not too
far from the hog pen. Even now, some people would rather spend over
500 thousand yuan (US$ 61,000 )on a new house than spend a little
on a modern toilet.
In 1980, central China's Henan
Province succeeded in promoting a new style toilet in the
countryside which efficiently disposed of excrement and urine. But
this toilet never gained real popularity. By the end of 1998, only
about 35.5 percent of the people in the province had converted to
modern toilets.
In 1998, departments concerned in
Guangxi Province imported from Sweden new ecological and
sanitary toilets that can scientifically dispose of waste to be
turned into fertilizer which then can be used on the land. Many
experts think that this new style toilet will change toilet history
in the Chinese countryside for thousands of years to come.
Toilet literature
Posture, space, freedom and writing surface are the most
important elements for the creation of toilet literature. In terms
of the posture, we have three categories: The standing, the sitting
and the squatting styles. The standing style is suitable to create
large, outstanding works, like slogans. The sitting style is
suitable for more intimate works, some delicate and some not. The
squatting style, however, is really not suitable for creating
works.
In terms of space, a stall with a writing surface combined with
the sitting style provides the ideal for toilet literature. This
may explain why the toilet literature of North America is so
wonderful. North Americans have long works,elegant articles, and
dialogues, strong language, poetry and pictures. Colorful and
splendid.
Chinese toilet literature may seem rather dull in comparison,
but we too have our excellent works. Here are a couple of modern
examples that recently have come to the attention of the
author:
"Please look to your left side," a note on the wall says.
Looking left, one reads: "Please look back." Looking back, one sees
the message: "Please look up." Looking up, one sees the final
message: "Please don't look around when you are in the toilet."
The other employs a more useful kind of humor: In the men's room
in front of the urinal in a toilet at a cafeteria there is a
cartoon of San Mao,a famous literary character in China known for
his antics, in a military uniform firing a rifle. The caption
reads: "Aim straight ahead, adjust the sight and fire." Most get
the implication while enjoying the art.
Our ancestors were more elegant. Here is an example of a
traditional Chinese couplet from history:
The first line reads: "Enter with fast steps, double-time." The
second line goes "Leave at your leisure." In another one, the first
line goes: "Even though you are a peerless hero, you must still bow
and squat when you arrive here." The second line goes,"Even if you
are a chaste and innocent woman, you must still drop your drawers
when you come here."
Practical Suggestions
1. Places to Find a Good Toilet
Star-rated toilets in tour attractions
Big supermarkets and shopping centers
Hotel lobbies
Places that serve coffee
2. How to Read the Signs
Most public bathrooms in the big cities have the distinguishing
international stick figures of a man or a woman; some also include
the British "W.C."(for water closet as the toilet is known in
England). The Chinese character for "men" is 男 and the Chinese
character for women is"女."
3. A Word to the Wise
Carry toilet paper with you. Most free public bathrooms do not
provide toilet paper. Even at some of the one star-rated tourist
toilets, paper is provided but only at a general location in the
room, not at the stalls. Some Public bathrooms require a small
entry fee. An attendant should be available in these to provide
toilet paper. If you do not know Chinese and are in a hurry - your
own toilet paper might come in handy in this situation, too.
(china.org.cn by Sara and unisumoon, the editor of English travel
column) 09/21/2001