Getting priorities right in toilet revolution

There are two subjects that seem to come up often in travel-related stories, and they are both closely related daily activities.

Food is obviously a big talking point as tourists sample the many weird and wonderful delights of the local cuisine. But it's not only how the food goes down but the circumstances you find yourself in as it comes out that can provide the best material for trip tales.

If you've reached your 30s without collecting a gross overseas toilet story, or if you haven't undertaken a desperate search for facilities in the middle of nowhere after eating a dodgy kebab, then you've been doing holidays wrong.

When I tell people about China, hotpot and hutong toilets are on high rotation. Rather than boring them with sightseeing stories, I aim to shock with descriptions of the various animal parts available at hotpot restaurants and the need to abandon any notion of privacy in the cubicle-less hutong toilets.

This may seem juvenile, but the difference in how various countries approach the necessities of life make the best trip tales because they take you beyond the tourist attractions everyone sees in the brochures and give you a glimpse of real life.

Late last year, China announced plans to spend $290 billion to develop tourism over the next four years. A "toilet revolution" headlined the investment. In response to constant complaints about the state of the facilities, about 100,000 public toilets across the country are set for a foreigner-friendly makeover.

I'm all for improved sanitation, especially in places where rural communities rely on public toilets as much as tourists, but it's unclear from the announcement what the new baseline standard is.

Given the emphasis on tourists, I fear this money will be spent replacing squat toilets with Western-style sit-down facilities.

Squat toilets have a bad reputation in the West. Sure, there are putrid squat toilets out there, just like any country has a range of maintenance issues no matter what shape the bowl is.

When you get beyond Australia's major cities you're just as likely to come across dingy public toilets with cracked seats and creepy crawlies lurking in the corners. In these situations it's probably preferable to find a squat toilet where only the soles of your shoes come into contact with any surfaces.

This advantage from a hygiene point of view, not to mention the added workout for your leg muscles, is under-rated. There's also much less dilly dallying on a squat toilet which can only be a good thing at busy tourist attractions and experts say it's a more natural position to do your business.

Just like you've got to try duck blood at least once when you're doing hotpot, tourists should give the squat toilet a go. It might be a bit intimidating at first, but you might be pleasantly surprised. And it will make for much more interesting travel stories.

Contact the writer at rosemary_b@chinadaily.com.cn