The place to ask China-related questions!
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an Hangzhou Qingdao Dalian Suzhou Nanjing More Cities>>

Categories

Close
Welcome to eChinacities Answers! Please or register if you wish to join conversations or ask questions relating to life in China. For help, click here.
X

Verify email

Your verification code has been sent to:

Didn`t receive your code? Resend code

By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .

Sign up with Google Sign up with Facebook
Sign up with Email Already have an account? .
Posts: 7204

Emperor

0
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

Q: Chinese toilets are different to other toilets

here is a little nugget from a Australian web page i thought you might like
and let the toilet humor roll on
Secrets men and women need to know about each other's toilets

a day ago

 by Sam Downing

FTB

During a recent Very Important and Serious meeting of the ninemsn editorial team, it was discovered that our editor-in-chief Emma Chamberlain had never heard of urinal cakes – something that every man is, unfortunately, all too familiar with.

It turns out there are a lot of things going on in bathrooms that seem totally normal to people who use them every day... but which are baffling mysteries to the opposite gender.

We cast around the team to find out what men and women wonder most about the other's bathrooms, and reveal the answers to these pressing mysteries below.

Little boys' rooms

What even are urinal cakes?

Despite their name, urinal cakes — aka urinal mints, pucks, biscuits and "deodoriser blocks" — are not for eating. (They are sooooo not for eating.) They are literally the least appetising thing you can possibly imagine. While the "cake" bit of their name is horrifyingly misleading, the "urinal" bit is just-as-horrifyingly spot on: urinal cakes are hockey puck-shaped things dumped into urinal troughs (which are as foul as they sound) to keep them freshly scented.

Note that "keep them freshly scented" is more of an aspirational description than an accurate one, because the cakes have a powerfully chemical lemon odour which – when combined with the pungency of a well-trodden bathroom – is anything but fresh.

Every man is familiar with the inverse rule of urinal cakes: the more cakes an establishment's men's room has, the less reputable that establishment is likely to be.

For instance, this would be quite a horrible establishment.

What's the etiquette with urinals?

It turns out that ladies are bursting with questions about how urinals work. "How do you know which urinal to pick? Is it weird to stand next to someone while you pee? Are you allowed to talk at the urinal?"

(These questions are not just of interest to ladies, by the way. They've actually been studied scientifically.)

As every fella knows: in almost every instance, it's Not Cool to use the urinal right next to a fellow bathroomgoer if there is a further-away urinal available. (It's similar to that weird moment when someone sits super-close to you in an otherwise empty cinema — "All this space and you have to squash right up next to me?!")

It is indeed sometimes kinda weird to pee right next to someone, and stage fright is common — one study found it can take guys almost twice as long to start peeing if they're feeling a little shy. Whether or not talking is kosher depends on the gentleman and the situation.

Ladies are also unfamiliar with child-size urinals — the ones that are lower to the ground and smaller, so boys can reach them — which are weird for a full-grown man to use and avoided unless it's an emergency.

"When a man goes to poo, does he check to see who is at the urinals, or, does he just march in like it's his godforsaken right to take a poo, knowing that everyone knows he is doing his business?"

Several ladies wondered about the etiquette behind this one (though not all of them phrased the question so vividly as the woman above): do men poop shamelessly if they know their colleagues or friends are in the bathroom and can hear what they're doing, or do they hide their business?

Unfortunately for the curious women, there doesn't appear to be a consensus among men. Some men are proud poopers, while others prefer to go in complete privacy and won't go if they know that someone else knows they're going. (For the record, most women appear to prefer privacy, but there are a couple of out-and-proud lady poopers too.)

Little girls' rooms

Why do women go to the bathroom in packs?

This is men's mostly widely believed "fact" about women's toilet use — and like many widely believed facts, there might not be a lot of truth to it. Several women claimed that ladyfolk don't usually go the bathroom together.

When they do do their business in packs, ladies said "it's usually because there’s a massive line and waiting is less boring if you have a friend to chat to", or maybe as an excuse to gossip about someone or "get a break from the pounding music" if they're out and about.

And men, despite what you might have learned from movies and TV, it's apparently pretty uncommon for women to partake in stall-to-stall chitchat.

Why do women use so much toilet paper?

It might have been your sister growing up. It might have been your female flatmate. It might be your wife or girlfriend. Whichever woman in your life it is, many men have wondered: "How the hell does she go through so much toilet paper?"

This seems to mostly come down to body mechanics. As one woman bluntly responded: "We can't just shake our genitals dry like you lot." Other women said that, in a public toilet, they might also unspool extra toilet paper to mask the sounds of their business and make it easier to go, or (as we'll see below) for hygiene reasons.

What do women do when a toilet is... less than splendid?

When men encounter a befouled bathroom, they can at least opt to stand (most of them time). So, some fellas wondered, what do women do in this situation?

There's no apparent consensus on this one, either. Some ladies surveyed said that they solve the problem of unclean toilet seats by hovering over them in an awkward crouch-squat. Other women said they can't do their business in such a position, and instead layer the seat with careful squares of protective toilet paper, or tissues pulled from their handbag.

For the record, men reported that when they need to sit on a tarnished throne they also resort to the TP option (possibly because they haven't spent years hovering over dirty toilets, and haven't built up the required thigh strength to crouch-squat).

Other findingsCleanliness is next to manliness

Women's toilets, surprisingly, seem to be messier than men's toilets. Several of the ladies admitted to sometimes sneaking into a little-used men's room if the line for the ladies' was too long, and agreed that the cleanliness of the men's room is generally of a higher standard. (Note the word "generally", because plenty of fellas reported seeing some very toxic men's rooms at the end of a long night.)

Bathroom chit-chat

Both genders agreed that it's generally a bit weird to talk in the bathroom at work, although many men have no problem carrying on a conversation while both are at the urinal. In a bar with your friends it's a different story (when alcohol is usually involved).

How loud should you poop?

Both genders said that they're generally hesitant/embarrassed to make a lot of noise while doing their business. However, everyone admitted to snickering at shameless poopers in the next stall who (in the words of one female co-worker) "waltz nonchalantly into the next loo and immediately let off a chorus of comically loud farts. Like how did they get so confident? Why don't they feel the public shame of shared lavatory noises?"

please don't forget to flush

7 years 48 weeks ago in  Arts & Entertainment - China

 
Highest Voted
Posts: 186

Governor

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Wow !

I never thought that so many words could be trickled down on this subject.

 

philbravery:

you can guess where they were when they wrote the article

7 years 48 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
7 years 48 weeks ago
 
Answers (3)
Comments (1)
Posts: 186

Governor

1
1
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Wow !

I never thought that so many words could be trickled down on this subject.

 

philbravery:

you can guess where they were when they wrote the article

7 years 48 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
7 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 402

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Chinese toilets are different because Chinese bodies are different

Report Abuse
7 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 7204

Emperor

1
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
1

it feels so empty without me lol

Report Abuse
7 years 42 weeks ago
 
Know the answer ?
Please or register to post answer.

Report Abuse

Security Code: * Enter the text diplayed in the box below
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <u>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Textual smileys will be replaced with graphical ones.

More information about formatting options

Forward Question

Answer of the DayMORE >>
A:  "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "S
A: "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "Shenzhen agent can connect you with an employer, who's authorized to hire waigouren ... and can sponsor Z visa." It's not like every 10th person you meet in Shenzhen's hood can sponsor work visa ...  The only way to change from student to labourer visa is just a regular way by: 1. Finding an employer, who'll apply for an Invitation letter; 2. Exit China and apply for Z visa in your home country's Chinese embassy; 3. Enter China in 30-days after Z visa was stamped into your travelling instrument ...As I am aware, you won't be able to switch to Working permit by remaining in China....,so make ready for a return to your home .... -- icnif77