No Pooh

Some people just can't read (or wait.)

A lot of people ask about the toilets here. I must say, due to the careful planning of the Olympic Committee, the number and cleanliness of the public toilets in major cities shot up about 1000 percent, and it is  possible to find a clean place to pee just about anywhere. In fact, many places have state-of-the-art Totos which shoot clean water at your bits followed with a gentle blow-dry and final misting of deodorizing droplets, thus rendering the need for toilet paper obsolete. However, in older buildings, such as long-established restaurants, the standard squatter with limited ability to handle solid waste is not unknown, even today. One of the biggest shocks of my life was going to a fairly well-known and hip joint and seeing a sign in the ladies' which said, "No Shitting." I thought they were kidding. They weren't. A sieve was thoughtfully set into the toilet just in case.

There are many parts of the world--hell, even parts of California--where the plumbing can't handle toilet paper. But solid waste? And by that, I mean poo. I guess you just have to hold it. But considering the large number of tourists who, at any time, might explode into spasms of gastric distress, you'd think  the touristy restaurants would make more of an effort to handle the effluvia.

The above picture was taken one delightful summer evening last year at what is arguably Beijing's most famous Duck Restaurant.  No shit.