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Advice for foreigners
Most hotels and restaurants in China will have a toilet. Hutongs (old alleyways) also frequently have public toilets as many residents will not have toilets in their homes, only buckets for nighttime and elderly. If you are on a main street it may help to walk down an alley if you are in search of a toilet.
There are two flavours of toilets, "western style" and "Asian style". Westerners sit and Asians squat. Do be prepared to do some squatting as sometimes there is no choice.
Toilets in China vary greatly, which is probably why the government has started rating them with stars and handing out awards. I've never seen any awarded less than 3 stars - one and two star toilets don't seem to get labeled. Good one-star toilets are found in public places. A long trough with stall dividers 1/2 metre high makes mini-cubicles where you squat, smoke, read the newspaper and ignore everyone else. Once or twice a day someone runs water into one end of the trough flushing away hours of business.
Carry a piece of toilet paper for these occasions as none is provided. A one fen note although small has been used in times of need (1/100th of a Renminbi). Other advice - breath through your mouth.
Don't go to China fearing the toilets. This may make it sound bad but really its not. Another good idea is to go into five-star hotels or restaurants to use the facilities - they are generally up to or above western standards.
Keep your small change handy as sometimes there can be a fee of one Renminbi or less which is to pay the workers to keep it clean, etc, etc. The toilet on the right cost 0.2 Yuan which is two jiao (twenty cents). The word "mao" is often used for "jiao" when spoken. Below you see the one jiao note - at the above toilet you'd pay two of these:











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