A bathroom problem of “Olympic” proportions

by Jeremy Kressmann on

When I first saw the venue designs for this summer’s Olympic games in Beijing, I was quite impressed. The Chinese have pulled out all the stops to create several cutting-edge stadiums for the games, including the Beijing National Stadium designed by award-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Beijing National Aquatics Center, which looks like a huge floating cube of water.

However, as the BBC reports, China may have spent a little too much money on those architecture fees. Prompted by frequent visitor complaints at test events, the Chinese are scrambling to replace traditional squat toilets at the venues with western-style “loos” for an expected 500,000 visitors. According to the BBC, who quotes Yao Hui, Deputy Head of Venue Management, “Most of the Chinese people are used to the squat toilet, but nowadays more and more people demand sit-down toilets.”

Gee, Yao, do you think? I have no problem adapting to a traditional squat toilet if I’m coming to visit China on my own, but perhaps when you have visitors coming from as many as 200 different nationalities you might want to standardize? I guess if you’re headed to this summer’s games in Beijing, make sure you bring your own toilet paper and maybe take a look at this for advice. Also take a look at this for more “traditional” background info on Beijing before your visit.

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The top 10 World’s Dirtiest Cities:


You’ll never guess what made the list!

Where to find the best and worst bathrooms

by Martha Edwards on

Catherine recently told us about a handy cell-phone service that will help you find the best bathroom in west London. My first thought was, It would be nice if they had something like that in North America, but as it turns out, they do. MizPee can tell you where the nearest clean bathrooms are when you use it on your cell phone, as Justin told us a few months ago.

But you know what else MizPee does? It allows you to rate the bathroom — they have a Honor Roll for the best and a Wall of Shame for the worst. Best bathrooms include those at the Time Warner Center and Apple Store in Manhattan, and the worst can be found at Starbucks in Union Square West and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

My vote for the worst bathroom goes to the ones in LAX. I have never been to a decent one while traveling through that airport.

India’s Hosting the World Toilet Summit

by Martha Edwards on

This headline sounds like it’s a joke, but it’s actually quite serious — The World Toilet Summit has plans to convene in New Delhi later this month to discuss the john, the throne, the bog, the loo — whatever you call it, it’s where most of us do our business.

But it’s the ‘most of us’ part that’s troubling the WTS — they’d like to make toilets accessible to everyone by 2025. A lofty goal? Maybe. But it would make the world a safer place — defecating in open places is one of the biggest ways that fatal diseases are spread. And it would sure make travelling a lot more fun for westerners who are particular about where they spend a penny.

So I have to wonder — by toilets, do they mean actual sit down toilets? Or are squatties considered toilets? I’ve seen some very nice squatties in my travels, but none is as welcoming as a loo like the one at home.

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Men Must Wash Hands Before Returning to Work

by Iva Skoch on

I know a lot of men, who never touch a public bathroom door handle with bare hands because they claim that other men never wash their hands. In fact, some men’s bathrooms have a pile of tissues next to the door because some men prefer to grab a tissue/hand towel and use it to open the door.

Looks like germ-o-phobes have another reason to keep doing so. A new study found that a rising number of American men do not wash their hands after using the bathroom–one third of all men comparing to 12 percent of women.

If the hygiene standard is so bad in America, I don’t even want to think about some other parts of the world. Here is to kicking the door open!

The World’s Largest Bathroom

by Justin Glow on

We really love toilets here at Gadling. Seriously, look at our previous coverage. It’s insane!

Iva found a better cleaning solution than toilet paper, Neil’s got a solution for urinating on-the-go, and I discovered that Japan’s All Nippon Airways is the first airline to install bidets in their planes. But wait, there’s more! You can find the nearest bathroom from your cell phone, read a funny story about squat toilets (and learn how to properly use one as well), learn the history of toilets from the toilet museum, and take a luxurious dump in the woods with the BioToi. Deep breath. Did you know that Silverjet has women-only toilets? It’s true. And what about the world’s most amazing bathrooms? We’ve got that too. We’ve also got Willy’s wonderful roundup of urinals with spectacular views. Speaking of urinals — what’s that fly doing in there? If you’re ever lost in China and needin’ to pee, have no fear: hire a toilet guide who will show you to a lovely outdoor urinal (be careful though — they’re running out of receipts). We’ve got the world’s best bathrooms, the world’s worst, and the world’s largest toilet that turned out to not be a toilet at all. And if you’re curious (I’m sure there’s someone out there who is), we’ve got coverage on the World Toilet Summit in Moscow. Did you know there are a lot of, um, people having sex in airport bathrooms? Is that even legal? Curious why your last flight was delayed? It may be because the air traffic controller needed to use the bathroom! And only because this has got to stop sometime (I gotta pee anyway), here’s the last one: did this woman die from a shaft of frozen urine that fell from an airplane? You decide.

With that, here’s another bit of toilet-related news to round out our coverage: It’s the world’s largest bathroom in China, spread out over four floors and 30,000 square feet.