Olympics crisis over squat toilets
Demand for sit-down toilets is growing, said Mr Yao
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China is rushing to install sit-down loos for its 500,000 foreign Olympics visitors, after complaints that venues had only Asian-style squat toilets.
A lack of Western-style facilities was a common complaint after some 30 test events at Games venues, officials said.
"A lot of parties have raised the question of toilets… We have told the venues to improve on this," said Yao Hui, deputy head of venue management.
He said bathroom renovations were already under way at three key venues.
"Most of the Chinese people are used to the squat toilet, but nowadays more and more people demand sit-down toilets," said Mr Yao.
Evidently when the planners were setting up all of these grand facilities they failed to take into account that outside of Southeast Asia, Japan and China, people are accustomed to Western toilets and instead installer the squatting toilets that are more prevalent there. So there is now a race against time to get half a million Western toilets installed in time. Part of this to me is hilarious (imagining an emergency toilet installation force) and part awkward (wouldn’t there be cultural advisors on staff for planning). What do you think?
Read the rest of this story at BBC News | Asia-Pacific
