Shaolin toilets

[GeneChing]

For anyone who used the toilets in Shaolin Temple, I'm sure they'll agree. This is a good thing.


Shaolin Temple installs luxury restrooms (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24012513/)
Addition to famed tourist draw cost $430,000, state media reports
updated 9:19 a.m. PT, Tues., April. 8, 2008

BEIJING - The simple life of monks at China's famed Shaolin Temple got an upgrade with the installation of luxury restrooms worth 3 million yuan ($430,000 U.S. dollars), state media reported Tuesday.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the most lavish of the restrooms measures more than 150 square meters (1,614 square feet) and is equipped with a diaper changing station for infants, uniformed cleaners and a foyer with an LCD television. The toilets also provide easy access for the disabled and have Braille signs for the blind.

The restrooms, which are free of charge for both monks and tourists, opened earlier this month, the report said.

"The toilets aim to better serve tourists from both home and abroad," Xinhua quoted local government official Zhang Zhongqiang as saying.

Established about 1,500 years ago, the Shaolin Temple, located in central China's Henan province, is famous for combining martial arts with Buddhism and is a popular tourist attraction.

[sean_stonehart]

That's good to hear. The one they had at the restaurant near the Wushu Guan was... well... a **** hole... plus now they're not charging!!! Bonus on that.

[richard sloan]

For anyone who used the toilets in Shaolin Temple, I'm sure they'll agree. This is a good thing.

somehow I doubt this will cut down on the sale of newspapers though...

[Blacktiger]

Ahhhhhhhhhhh what great character building trials that one is subjected to when in Shaolin.

The final test is to over come the toilets then enlightenment is all yours!:D

[BM2]

Ha! Sean, what I recalled, besides being charged to go in there, was the odor.
Then there was the one at Chen Village by the resturaunt! As I was walking to it, everyone walking out was laughing. It had no stalls and the toilets were the urinal on the floor looking thing out there in front of everyone. Herman was squated down trying to hold onto his cloths and his self respect at the same time.
:p

[sean_stonehart]

Ha! Sean, what I recalled, besides being charged to go in there, was the odor.
Then there was the one at Chen Village by the resturaunt! As I was walking to it, everyone walking out was laughing. It had no stalls and the toilets were the urinal on the floor looking thing out there in front of everyone. Herman was squated down trying to hold onto his cloths and his self respect at the same time.
:p

Eeeewwwww... Wen Xian... remember that one & the one in Chen Village at the old school. Oh gawd...

[David Jamieson]

geez, it sounds like some of you haven't been camping or something. lol

are we all porcelain spoiled softies?

[sean_stonehart]

It's one thing to dig a hole in the woods... it's another to be around say a couple decades of use & abuse without terribly high sanitary standards in a communal setting. Yuk...

[SoCo KungFu]

This just begs the question though....

What now will become of the world famous shaolin horse stance?

[David Jamieson]

I owuld personally laugh my ass off if i saw someone actually crapping in sei ping dai ma.

[mkriii]

Some of my m.a. classmates went to train with the Bejing wu shu team in Bejing China and they told me about the toilets (or the lack of). They said there was a book next to the whole in the ground where you would tare out pages to use as toilet paper to wipe your A$$. I thought to myself I'm glad I didn't go. Of course my teacher knew this and took his own toilet paper and was selling it to his students (to make a profit).......lol. Also, he stayed at the nicest hotel (4 star hotel) there while his students stayed at the training facility and slept on a thin matress on the floor. They said that the matress was only a few inches thick (or thin, however you want to look at it).

[BM2]

How about the ones in Tibet? I took a leak in the stone slot and watched it break up in the air as it went over the cliff hundreds of feet below. I guess it was their version of an outhouse.

[GeneChing]

... but just in case you haven't, check out Shaolin Trips - Episode Three: Resting on a Pillow (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=522).

[sean_stonehart]

How about the ones in Tibet? I took a leak in the stone slot and watched it break up in the air as it went over the cliff hundreds of feet below. I guess it was their version of an outhouse.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhh........ I waited until I got out of Potola before I went. I'm slighly acrophobic. Taking a **** over a 100 + foot drop just made me wanna go in my jeans.

[Mook Jong]

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-04-16-shaolin-temple-restrooms_N.htm?se=yahoorefer


Is it just me or does this seem...odd?

[UK MONK]

the shaolin temple is a tourist attraction im afraid. they have rebuilt the temple many times and then make it look old :(

[Mook Jong]

that's pretty sad. But seriously, 430,000.......on some (rappers? that's just insane

[UK MONK]

i was there two weeks ago showing some friends around and i didnt see any toilets :confused:

[David Jamieson]

that's pretty sad. But seriously, 430,000.......on some (rappers? that's just insane

really? do you know what it costs just for materials to set up indoor plumbing?

It's not that outrageous depending on the facility. You might be surprised at what stuff costs. I bet that same set up in a new york mall would be comparably priced if not scads more.

I sentence you to 2 days study at a home depot and you can't get contractor rates either! lol

[Shaolinlueb]

about time, i have heard stories.

[LFJ]

http://conversationage.waggeneredstrom.com/photos/image/images/3311/original.aspx

[LFJ]

so, not sure if anyone else has had a chance to go there since the installation.

but its pretty awesome. off the sidewalk between the temple and the pagoda forest.

you get your choice of chinese squatter or western throne. there is also a handicap toilet. and they all have doors you can lock. the urinals flush themselves. and its fully equipped with hand soap dispensers, and your choice of paper towel dispenser or hot air hand dryer. you dont need to bring your own newspaper for wiping and its actually clean!

i enjoyed it. :)

[mkriii]

so, not sure if anyone else has had a chance to go there since the installation.

but its pretty awesome. off the sidewalk between the temple and the pagoda forest.

you get your choice of chinese squatter or western throne. there is also a handicap toilet. and they all have doors you can lock. the urinals flush themselves. and its fully equipped with hand soap dispensers, and your choice of paper towel dispenser or hot air hand dryer. you dont need to bring your own newspaper for wiping and its actually clean!

i enjoyed it. :)

Thats capitalism at work! Shaoling Temple is to commercialized. The name is even trade marked. What you learn there is watered down unless you have been studying there for any great length of time (5+ yrs).

[LFJ]

i didnt study with anybody in the toilet. :) i imagine it would be watered down though.

but i'm personally thankful for it. you havent seen the type of maggot/fly/mosquito infested troughs i've squatted over with several young chinese children watching. what a relief it is.

[unkokusai]

Oh, I have some traumatic memories of those sorts of horror-bogs.

[LFJ]

lol, "the bog of eternal stench" is what i named it.

[BM2]

[QUOTE=LFJ;873230]i didnt study with anybody in the toilet. :) i imagine it would be watered down though.
QUOTE]


Que?
Just think what you could have learned if you had stayed for five years:p

[doug maverick]

For anyone who used the toilets in Shaolin Temple, I'm sure they'll agree. This is a good thing.

what no more hole's in the ground. ahhhh....thats half the experience.