I’ve been to homes of people 75+ years old and they have nothing but a squat toilet. In some places it’s outside of the main house. One guy was 96 years old.
I guess if you been squatting for 70 years then it’s no problem when your over 70. Maybe that’s part of the reason they made it so far.
All in southern Taiwan, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua areas.
There’s still plenty of young people that prefer squat toilets. Most middle schools and high schools seem to mostly have squat toilets with one stall at the end reserved for the “western toilet.”
I think that’s mostly for cost reasons.
I know plenty of people over 50 who have to struggle to get up from chairs let alone squatting for daily necessities. If we are talking public bathrooms, I’d think the design should be more inclusive.
Definitely the bathrooms are far, far better than they were twenty years ago. In Tainan at least I think SARS was one of the big turnarounds - before that, I didn’t see much soap in bathrooms; after that, most had soap.
But an annoyance that is certainly not limited to Taiwan: I’m using soap and I need to rinse my hands! Give me more than three seconds of running water, damn it!
Why are plants mandatory in Taiwan bathrooms? I’m always expecting to see a spider or bugs crawling out.
" while squatting is favoured in other areas"
In Taiwan they squat for everything, even washing dishes outside on the sidewalk!
It gives it a certain ‘je ne se quoi’? Distracts you from the dump that’s still floating around in the toilet bowl?
Yes it’s really astonishing how you can find spotless public access toilets all over the place. Huge improvement mostly credited to MRT influence I would say.
Sometimes I visit Singapore and they are way behind Taiwan.
Never mind Vancouver, which simply doesn’t seem to have public bathrooms except for shopping malls (I assume this is because of problems with homelessness and/or drugs). If you’re a middle-aged man or older, nope, no coffee for you before getting on transit.
Freshens up the atmosphere probably. Or at least that’s the illusion. The poor thing is being inundated with shit fumes all day though.
I still occasionally see some gross spectacles in the public toilets here, but overall they’re much cleaner than the average public toilet I’d see in the USA or Australia. People can act like animals when they know no one is around.
Cleanest toilets are in Japan. I’ve never seen anything gross there, not even once. It’s a point of pride for them that everything has to have the illusion of cleanliness and order.
Japanese bathrooms really do stay eerily clean. Even the bathrooms I expect to be not so great, like in super high traffic areas in densely populated cities, surprise me every time. It’s like they have a cleaning person stationed in there cleaning constantly.
The last time I used a bathroom in Taiwan that was really unacceptable was when I took a friend to the National Palace Museum a few years ago, back when mainland tourists were flooding the city. The bathrooms were absolutely trashed. I think they just couldn’t keep up with the rate the tourists were wrecking them.
But in general I find Taiwanese public restrooms to be in pretty decent shape. They’ve definitely only improved during my lifetime.
I’ve used horrible Japanese toilets so they are not all good.
Now if only public toilets actually exist in certain jurisdictions (cough ENGLAND cough)
No. It has nothing to do about cost.
It is about following newer regulations about having access to toilets for those who are disabled.
They have to have at least one sit toilet to comply.
There’s a new shopping mall in Shulin that has bidet toilets, just like Japan.
The CEO of CPC announced a year or so ago that the company would upgrade all the gas station toilets to be light, airy, and to have bidet toilets.
The current government’s policy about flushing toilet paper is also a big leap in progress.
The future of toilets in Taiwan is truly bright.
This thread is a load of crap!, just kidding. It’s a wondrous feeling when you have just unloaded a huge load. You feel ALIVE again.
On that subject talking about things that can’t be unseen.
Once saw a gf’s turd floating unflushed…still can’t un see that . Changed my perception of her.
In her defense, sometimes you flush…and it pops up right back. Sometimes it refuses to go.
And no, it is not her. It is the commode.
How very gender equal of you. I guess women aren’t allowed to shit.
Why? Everyone shits.
Wait until you’re married for years and live with a faulty toilet that doesn’t always flush properly. Shit happens.
Forgetting to flush is a faux pas.
However, in my experience, technical difficulties may arise.
Now, let’s talk about leaving the lid up…