this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
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Many are just 'squatty potties' - is a hole in the floor and a tank below.
And yah, tourists are told to bring TP already since some bathrooms don't have any.
😶
People kept stealing the toilet paper rolls. Poor elderly are notorious for this from what I heard
Ha! :) I never heard that before but that does make sense. I remember my American grandma hoarded supplies like this her whole life, long after the lean depression-era years she lived through. Every single pencil was used down to the nub. We got a serious talking-to if we tossed a milk bottle with more than a drop left in it.
What do you mean by a tank below? For flushing or…?
All the squatty potties I encountered in Asia were plumbed the way a toilet in the US would be plumbed so the poop gets flushed elsewhere.
I hope the ones in China weren’t basically permanent porta potties….
It really varies. I just did a big tour of China in June and we saw many fancy, futuristic toilets in malls and hotels. We saw somewhat stinky but otherwise clean public toilets at parks and such. And we came across a couple of holes in the floor with a septic tank below ground, exposed to the air - and no TP provided. Those are rare now, from what I saw. (Septic tank was the word I couldn't think of before) I'm no plumber though so I may be getting that word wrong still.
Septic tanks are a bit more specific, you appear to be referring to a pit latrine which most commonly will have a cesspit.