Bathrooms

The questions friends ask about most often have to do with bathrooms. I'm guessing everyone is wondering, so here is a whole blog entry on the subject.

The dorms at the university do not have bathrooms. Because I live in the International Guest House, aka hotel, I have a bathroom in my room (yep, I do know how lucky I am!). But the Chinese students must shower in a public bath house. Every weekend, I see students walking around campus with sandals and wet hair, holding a towel and a bottle of shampoo. (Side note: I'm not sure if they only take showers on weekends or if I just don't go out at the right time to see them on weekdays.) Anyway, the shower in my room is the kind with the removable shower head. But there is no bathtub or actual shower space, and no shower curtain. The bathroom is just a room with a toilet, a sink, a shower head on the wall, and a drain on the floor. At first, I thought the whole room was going to get wet when I took a shower. But it doesn't. The only negative thing I can think of about the shower is that because there's no curtain, roommates don't use the bathroom at the same time.

As for hot water, it is available only at designated times in my building. The times are from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and then again from 6 p.m. to midnight. Like the shower situation, the hot water is not a big deal. Who takes a shower at three in the afternoon anyway? Maybe every once in a while it might be nice. But really, either wait a few hours or plan out your day better. And yes, this means there's no hot water during the day to wash your hands with, but in America, do you always wait for the tap water to get hot before washing your hands? I know I didn't.

I have a western toilet in my room, but the public toilets are very different here. The rumor is that they are "just holes in the ground." That's only partly true. So here is some clarification. The toilets are made of white porcelain, like in the west, but you don't sit on them. There are places for your feet on either side of the toilet bowl and you just squat. There is no structure above ground-level. So in a sense, the toilets are holes in the ground, but that doesn't mean there is no plumbing, or that you squat on a dirt floor, or whatever else you may have imagined. In some respects, the Chinese toilet is more sanitary. How many people sit on the same public toilet in America every day? In China, no one touches the toilet. On the other hand, some people in China miss the toilet bowl and the toilets aren't cleaned very often.

And, it's true: Toilet paper isn't provided in the bathrooms. I keep tissues in my pocket at all times, although I rarely find myself in need of a public toilet.

I think I covered every aspect of a bathroom, so maybe you all can ask me about something else! I welcome your questions about life in China!