A little more than 20 years, I’ve been here.
When I first arrived, public restrooms in the major fast food restaurants and other places were deplorable, not enough stalls and very few if any sit down toilets.
If you really needed to make number 2 (poop) and needed to sit your only option was the luxury department stores or the lobbies of the five star hotels.
They always gave you toilet paper and some times pumped in music to go by.
Outside of that, no one offered toilet paper. You could buy a small packet at a nearby machine or just look for a person handing out free paper along with advertisements for a new restaurant or a politician’s campaign.
Fast forward…
In the city any places like large gas stations, fast food restaurants and hypermarkets like Costco and Carrefour offer clean bathrooms fully stocked.
With the closure of certain stores another option is worth considering for that bowel emergency, major hospitals like the one across from the closed Carrefour north of the Ktown train station.
What’s your bathroom contribution?
MRTs now have really nice bathrooms. Cleanliness is good enough, I guess. If you are in Taipei or Kaohsiung having an emergency needing to run to a bathroom, aside from the options OP mentioned, MRT is a good choice too.
I hear on EVA Air they employ girls to wipe your bottom for you 
Lol… how could you be so heatless?
Not sure why you had to clarify that. One or the other is probably sufficient.
I’m actually shocked at how much public restrooms and restrooms everywhere have improved over the last few years. Almost seems like a coordinated effort. I think partially to do with making Taiwan better for tourists.
Also all free which is not common in most metropolises in the world.
Thank you for clarifying. We also would’ve accepted this 
emoji just to make things absolutely clear by what you meant by number 2.
What a truly odd thread… I don’t have much trouble finding sit-down toilets. Most places have at least one. Although I hear squat toilets are actually better for your health if you can deal with the awkwardness and stiff knees.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3742997/The-great-sit-squat-debate-idea-fills-horror-squat-toilets-effective-better-health-doctor-claims.html
Still a lot of places the door is always wide open or there is no door, with the urinals in plain sight of anyone passing by. And the hallway smells like stale piss. I also dislike the ones where you have to get your tp before entering the cubicle - I always run out.
That reminds me of a weird experience I had at a toilet in a Singapore train station. Needed to drop the kids off at the pool but had to wait for a free cubicle. Someone finishes and I go in. But there’s a massive turd on the seat o.o I go out and the guy who had just used it says “whats the problem?" I reply “I, uhh… There’s no tp.” He points to the dispenser so I duly take some, go back in the cubicle and pretend to use it until he’s gone
I really don’t understand the thinking behind that practice. What the hell is that about? So dumb.
Why didn’t you confront him? He knew you knew. You should’ve just called him a filthy animal and told him to clean up his shit like a civilized human being. If he doesn’t, then rub his nose in it like a dog.
That’s one solution to prevent people from stealing toilet paper.
i saw one the other day in feng jia night market. on the left side was the mens and on the right was the womans. no doors, you could stand in the middle (where i was waiting after i finished) , look into the mens and see guys peeing, then turn your head to the right and look in to the womens.
in general though the bogs here haven’t been that bad. better standard than china. when i was working there i had to take a walk to the next door building if i needed to take a dump.
Oh, of course thrifty Taiwanese would try that. Always trying to save a penny…
They should just put it in a locked case with the bottom of the TP sticking out.
Poll some Taiwanese as to which is which. You may want to poll some slightly older people who don’t consume international media.
I sincerely believe it is or was reversed.
Like I said, this was 20 years ago. Trying to go anywhere outside your home was an adventure. Some relatives had squat toilets in their homes. (OK, only one.)
And, there were plenty of stories of foreigners falling victim to them.
One more clean toilet update. Public parks in Pingtung, unbelievable! We must be in Switzerland now.
And a slot for NT$10 coins to be inserted for every 20 sheets.
I just wish some of the soap dispensers in the convenience store bathrooms actually had soap…I mean why bother mounting a soap dispenser but never filling it up.
Makes me think twice about the employees handling food.
Costco even has warm water in the sinks. Was pleasantly surprised.
So you’re saying your need for clarification was to not confuse the older Taiwanese folks who don’t consume international media, yet happened to be reading this thread?
The downside of that is you’d smell a lot of dirty asses on the MRT. People here would rather save a few dollars than have a clean bootyhole.
Fair point! Brings up memories of the big toilet paper crisis of 2018.
Here in Japan, number 1 is poo and number 2 is pee. Hence older Taiwanese have it reversed as well.
Well, it’s just a convention. well, number 2 does rhyme with poo in English, so there is some reason.
But 1 is smaller than 2. So it should be “logical” for 小便 being a number 1 and 大便 being a number 2.
At the same time, the Chinese word for “logic” is a borrowed/loan word. 
I seriously doubt squat toilets is of any use to most Taiwanese over 50. It’s good for people who have decent health conditions, but sit toilet is good for all.