So. Imagine this scenario, just for fun. You're in a small city in China and the urge to empty your bowels suddenly makes itself known. Great, you think. You have to take a shit. In desperation you search for a public bathroom and you spot a nice little dumpling restaurant. You hurridley walk over and ask them if they have a bathroom. They shake their head at you and point to a non-descript building across the street. You look in the direction they are pointing and you don't see anything. Oh wait, there is a 10x10 brick building with no roof sitting off the side of the road. Surely that can't be the public bathroom you're supposed to use right? You look at the worker in the restaurant to confirm your suspicions, and he tells you that that building is indeed the shitter. Now, with your past experiences with public bathrooms in China, you ask him for some napkins, knowing that you wont find any in the building sitting off the side of the road. He gives you some and sends you on your way.

You walk across the street to the little enclosure and find yourself looking at a little square outlined with bricks with a dividing wall. One side for the ladies, another side for the gentleman. You quickly realize that asking for directions wasn't needed because the smell protrudes about a 100 sq. ft. radius around the building. Upon entering the proper side of the building, be it the ladies side or the mens side, you will now see a series of perhaps four or five little holes in the ground with cinder blocks on either side so as to rest your feet as you squat. That's right. Nothing more than nice open ditch shitter. Quite practical and functional. It's obvious it hasn't been cleaned in quite some time, if ever. The weather and natural process of decay is probably the one who takes care of the cleaning. It's also worth observing that at least some of the people didn't have time to ask someone for napkins and the newspaper they carried under their arm on the way to work or something sufficed for the after shit duty of wiping. Nice. You squat, take a look at the cloudless sky and hold your breath. Another person with the same bowel emptying agenda that you had walks in avoiding the puddles of piss carved out in the mud and says "Ni hao" as he squats next to you. "Hmm.....", you think. Aint this nice. Welcome to the joys of public bathrooms in the non-developed cities of China.

Public bathrooms are a bit nicer in places like Beijing and other big cities. Partitions and aluminum squatters are even provided. Napkins of course need to be brought on your own however. Thank god for McDonalds every fifteen feet or so.