Lavatory Let-down

Day 5 – 29/09/12

One would assume that China is a country in which you can find anything considering most things are made here. Well let me tell you what you can’t find here…western style toilets. My apartment has a western style toilet but that’s about the only place you could find one. Earlier on this week I went to a medical centre for foreigners and they had a non-western style toilet one that requires you to squat. To add to this feeling of repulsion is the lack of soap and toilet paper. I thought that they just didn’t care about foreigners so they didn’t bother to build a proper toilet or to put in any paper and soap. Today I learnt that I was wrong.

I visited a fairly modern six floor shopping mall with very expensive shops like Swarovski, Bvlgari, M.A.C and Estée Lauder. These are all international brands and are exceptionally extravagant in appearance and cost. However the toilets at this mall are the total opposite. They are squat style toilets like the ones at the medical centre for foreigners. They have no toilet paper and I didn’t spend enough time in there to check if they had soap. I was hoping to have better luck at McDonalds considering it epitomises everything western. But guess what I still found squat style toilets with no toilet paper. I was definitely surprised and very far from being delighted at that stage. Fortunately I didn’t need to go to the toilet that badly so I waited until I got home about five hours later.

This western style toilet- less place that I talk about is called Tianjin. It’s a long street-like pathway bordered with several tall building of shops, mall and hotels. No cars are allowed here only cards and their owners. The goods at this western style toilet-less place range from food to clothing to electronics, some cheap and others extravagantly pricy. The smaller and less expensive shop owners often insist that you buy something from their store. As soon as they see you taking an interest in something they run to you and start ranting away in Chinese. Who knows what they’re saying. Fortunately Tracy and I have learnt how to count in Chinese and we’ve also learnt the hand signs used to indicate certain numbers. This knowledge comes in handy when we’re trying to ask how much something costs.  

In China the numbers six to ten have specific hand signals that go along with them which definitely helped me to remember the Chinese word for each number. It also helps when I’m buying food or groceries.

Standing in the pathway of Tainjin surrounded by tall buildings, huge colourful screens and the sounds of cars, trucks and motorcycles made me feel as if I was in one of those movies where groups of friends go traveling around the world. These scenes are usually accompanied by upbeat music tracks which Tianjin successfully provided. Who said you need drugs, diamonds and dollars to feel like a movie star!

Good feeling!

Love Verusha

Six - Liu

Seven - Qi

  

Eight - Ba

Nine - Jiu



Ten - Shi

Me at Tainjin