Chinese toilets

[GeneChing]

China is Using Mass Pee and Poo Surveillance to Police Illegal Drug Use
Police in dozens of Chinese cities are sifting through human waste to track narcotics rings and drug programs.
Sarah Emerson
Jul 17 2018, 10:38am


Image: Shutterstock

The pee and poo of Chinese citizens have become veritable gold to police surveilling local drug use. Dozens of cities in China are now forensically analyzing sewage for drug consumption, according to Nature, which has led to the arrest of one drug manufacturer.

The city of Zhongshan, in Guangdong province, has been monitoring wastewater to evaluate drug-reduction programs, reports Nature. Police arrested a drug manufacturer based on the chemical analysis of human sewage, and “a handful of cities are planning to use [this kind of] data...to set targets for police arrests of drug users, some as early as next year.”

This process is called wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), and works by testing for certain byproducts, or metabolites, that the body produces after metabolizing drugs. Some of these byproducts are present in human sewage, and can act like biomarkers for substances such as cocaine and weed, as previous WBE studies have shown. As it’s currently used, WBE is quantitative tool; combined with population or other data, it can potentially tell investigators how much of a drug is used, and how that changes over time.

Biomonitoring isn’t only used for drug research—it’s led to some benefits in disease studies, for instance—and poses different benefits and consequences depending on how it’s wielded.

Chinese President Xi Jinping recently doubled-down on anti-drug efforts, vowing to target trafficking networks and drug makers, according to state-run Xinhua News Agency. By the end of 2018, Nature reports that central and local governments will have poured 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) into WBE surveillance.

As Nature notes, experts largely agree that WBE is fairly reliable at estimating drug use, and might be a better gauge than law enforcement data, which “can be misleading because they are indirect measures.”

A study by Colombian researchers, for example, corroborated survey and police data about cocaine and cannabis use in the city of Medellín. And wastewater collected from 49 treatment plants shed light on heroin use in 24 Chinese cities.

Still, its adoption by Chinese police raises interesting issues about biomonitoring ethics—mainly around consent regarding how biological substances are obtained, analyzed, and stored. We don’t know if measures will be put in place to prevent abuse, such as privacy violations or the improper use of biological data. As it stands, more efforts are needed to fully flesh out an ethical framework for the emerging technology.

Talk about your ****ty jobs - who gets to be the Chinese crap inspector?

[Jimbo]

Talk about your ****ty jobs - who gets to be the Chinese crap inspector?

Well...in China they actually have professional f@rt sniffers (for real). I'm betting if the job pays well enough, they'll have a ton of people in China signing up to be crap inspectors.

[GeneChing]

Two Chinese brothers die trying to retrieve dropped phone from latrine

Two Chinese brothers die trying to retrieve dropped phone from latrine
Pair killed after they became stuck in cesspit filled with human excrement

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 31 July, 2018, 1:37pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 31 July, 2018, 2:41pm
Windy Li



Two brothers from a rural village in northern China got stuck and died in a cesspit after they tried to retrieve a lost mobile phone, according to a local police report.

Police said one of the two men went down to the latrine pit in Huyan village in Shanxi province at noon last Tuesday, to pick up a phone dropped by his son the day before.

When he failed to emerge from the 2-metre pit, his brother went down to save him but also became trapped and died.

China’s public bathroom blitz goes nationwide as Xi Jinping rallies forces in the ‘toilet revolution’
When their families discovered they were missing they called the police, who knocked down the latrine wall and used pumps to empty the pit, but by that time they were too late.

Rescuers said the noxious gases generated by the human waste could cause people to lose consciousness.

Despite an ongoing “toilet revolution” intended to improve public hygiene across China, many rural areas still lack flushing lavatories and the use of latrine pits is still common.

A number of other deaths caused by people trying to retrieve phones from latrines have been recorded in China, including a similar tragedy in Huyan village five years ago.

In that incident a 43-year-old woman who dropped a phone became trapped in the pit and her husband and daughter also died trying to save her.

What a crappy way to die. And what a pointless reason.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Woah. Is 'logs' in the title an intentional pun?

China's 'toilet revolution' logs double-digit growth
Japan's Toto and Lixil compete with local players for middle-class customers

NAOKI MATSUDA and SHUNTARO FUKUTOMI, Nikkei staff writers
August 24, 2018 15:28 JST


A showroom featuring Arrow toilets in Shanghai.

SHANGHAI/TOKYO -- China's toilet market has enjoyed rapid growth in recent years, driven by middle-class customers who covet high-function models as well as by a government call to modernize bathrooms nationwide.

About 44.8 million toilets were sold in 2016, up 12% from 2015, according to Chinese researcher Zhiyan Consulting. High-end toilets with built-in bidets and other functions are particularly popular. Sales of such units reached 3.1 million in 2016, up nearly 60% from the previous year, reports Askci Consulting, another Chinese outfit.

Local manufacturers boasting affordable prices and Japanese manufacturers of high-end offerings, like Toto and Lixil, are competing head on to satisfy increasingly demanding consumers.

Bidet toilets from Toto and Lixil can run between 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan ($1,462 to $2,924) for best-selling models. But Chinese makers undercut the two Japanese competitors with prices ranging from 3,000 yuan to 7,000 yuan.

At one Shanghai outlet run by Jomoo Group, a major mainland manufacturer, a sales associate touts both the affordability of the toilets, and how the features rival those of Toto and Lixil. Thanks to the purification equipment installed, "the bidet water is so clean you could drink directly from it," said the vendor.

Arrow, another domestic producer, is experiencing brisk sales due to its reasonably-priced models. "We sell 10 to 20 units a day," said an employee at an Arrow shop in Shanghai. "We are so busy dealing with customers on weekends that we have no time for breaks."

Gold-plated toilets featured inside the Japan pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo drew much foot traffic. In 2015, Chinese tourists were seen purchasing bidet-style toilets while traveling in Japan. But one major reason Chinese demand for toilets is steadily rising is the policy adopted by the one-party state.

President Xi Jinping called for a "toilet revolution" in 2015 to upgrade unsanitary facilities found in tourist spots. At this March's National People's Congress, Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report that addresses toilets as a hygiene issue.

But even without the urging of the government, Chinese citizens are willing to shell out money for an upgraded toilet. One 42-year-old woman paid 12,000 yuan for a commode at a Toto showroom in Shanghai. She said she checked out Chinese models as well, but says she prefers Toto for the quality and design.

"The affluent in Shanghai and other cities favor upmarket products exceeding more than the Japanese," said Lixil President Kinya Seto. "Japanese companies also garner support because of the safety standard."

Lixil took advantage of the golden opportunity last year by launching an internet site in China that markets built-in bidet toilets. The platform even pairs customers with professional installers. Lixil anticipates roughly 600 million yen ($5.42 million) in sales this year, with the goal of raking in roughly 10 billion yen by 2021.

Meanwhile, Toto will lean on a line of Washlet Plus bidet toilets sleekly designed with the Chinese consumer in mind. The company is aiming for 100 billion yen in sales from its Chinese operation in fiscal 2022, up 50% from fiscal 2017.

India, whose market for sanitary installations is estimated at 40 billion rupees ($572 million), is also an enticing target in Asia. Only about half of India's households have toilets, and the government initiative to lift the ratio adds to the margin for growth. Lixil bought a large stake in India's Sentini Sanitarywares this January, which started making toilets this month bearing the brand of Lixil Group companies American Standard and Germany's Grohe.

But China is all but certain to maintain the red-hot demand for multifunction toilets. Beijing this month issued ordinances mandating restaurants check toilets once every 15 minutes, as well as an order to disinfect lavatory fixtures at least four times a day.

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

Really Bill? Really?

Wonder who's poop it was...

Bill Gates uses jar of poop to draw attention to the world’s toilet problem at China expo
Billionaire philanthropist tells event in Beijing about charity’s work to bring down cost of providing safe sanitation in developing countries
He says technologies on show at three-day event are ‘most significant advances in nearly 200 years’
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 06 November, 2018, 11:02pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 07 November, 2018, 1:26pm
Zhuang Pinghui



Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates wants the world to take notice of a serious issue that affects nearly half of the population – sanitation.

The Microsoft founder has been investing in finding solutions to the problem for the past seven years. Opening the three-day Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing on Tuesday, he said his charity had already spent US$200 million on research and development into sanitation technology to bring down the cost of providing clean and safe facilities in developing countries, especially areas without sewers. And it plans to spend another US$200 million.

“We are all here for one reason: because more than half the world’s population doesn’t have the safe sanitation they need to lead healthy and productive lives,” Gates told officials, business owners, bankers and academics at the expo hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I’d know so much about poop
BILL GATES, OPENING HIS REINVENTED TOILET EXPO IN BEIJING

To make his point, Gates brought on stage a jar of human waste, saying the pathogens it contained could cause diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid – illnesses that kill nearly 500,000 children aged under five every year in places without proper sanitation.

He said he became aware of the problem when he began travelling to poor areas with his wife Melinda Gates and found children playing in lanes strewn with human waste and where the water was contaminated.

They recognised the need to provide sanitation as a step to reducing poverty.

“One of the things we’re able to do as a foundation is invest in the early-stage R&D needed to create a path forward for the private sector to commercialise technologies and products that also help us achieve our goals. It’s a real win-win,” Gates said.

He said the foundation’s partners had developed a self-powered technology that takes in human waste, kills dangerous pathogens and converts the resulting materials into products with potential commercial value – like clean water, electricity and fertiliser.

“I have to say, a decade ago I never imagined that I’d know so much about poop. And I definitely never thought that Melinda would have to tell me to stop talking about toilets and faecal sludge at the dinner table,” the billionaire told a laughing audience. “But I’m quite enthusiastic about what has been accomplished in just seven years.”


Visitors look at a model of a self-contained toilet at the expo in Beijing. Photo: AP

Twenty of the hi-tech toilets are on show at the expo – all of them taking a different approach to break down human waste and destroy germs, leaving behind clean water or solids that can be used as fertiliser or safely disposed outdoors.

“The technologies you’ll see here are the most significant advances in sanitation in nearly 200 years,” Gates said.

Three years ago, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for improvements to toilets across the country in a campaign known as the “toilet revolution”. Since then, tens of thousands of facilities have been built or upgraded. At first the focus was on tourist sites but the campaign was later expanded nationwide to rural areas and cities.

However, there are still some 57 million households without their own toilets and, of those, 17 million – mainly in the countryside – face serious hygiene issues.

According to Gates, solving the sanitation problem in developing countries would also create a new multibillion-dollar business opportunity. He estimated that by 2030, it would be worth about US$6 billion a year worldwide.


Bill Gates explains how a toilet designed by Swiss engineering firm Helbling works. Photo: AFP

He explained how a toilet designed by Swiss engineering firm Helbling worked, discharging some liquid but filtering most of it back into the flushing tank for reuse. Swiss fragrance company Firmenich has also developed a toilet treatment product that can eliminate odours to reduce the number of daily flushes needed for just US$1.30 a month.

In China, the foundation is working with three local partners to improve toilet facilities. One of them is Eco-San, which has developed a system that can treat human waste, and filter and recycle the flushing water.

China’s ‘toilet revolution’ is almost complete … but it’s still far behind global standards
It has been introduced in primary schools, temples and tourist spots in Yixing, Jiangsu province and has capacity for 300 to 2,500 flushes a day, costing about 15 US cents each time.

“The price will be much lower if they are mass-produced or if we can find local partners in underdeveloped areas for mass production,” deputy general manager Mary Li said.

[GeneChing]

...eh, I don't know where I was going with that title for this post.

But this is kinda ironic.

Lack of public toilets in India deters Chinese tourists
by Editor January 17, 2019



Beijing, January 17 (One India): More and more Chinese are coming up as globe trotters but not many among them are considering India, the neighboring country, as their destination.

According to a report in China’s Global Times news website, when one enters “India” as a destination on search engine Fliggy, a travel service platform of Alibaba, it shows up several tours to India but not many of them are sold enough. India falls really behind when it is compared to other South-Asian nations like Thailand and Vietnam as a travel destination.

“… tours to Southeast Asian countries, including trips to the islands of Thailand or cities in Vietnam, are hot sellers on Fliggy. For example, a six-day trip to the Indonesian island of Bali had sold 165 times this month as of press time,” the Times report said. Liang Xude, who has a business that helps with visa applications, said only one per cent of Chinese tourists who plan to travel to Southeast Asian nations is interested in getting a visa to India.

In 2018, 140 million Chinese tourists spent over $120 billion on overseas trips, revealed China Tourism Academy and India is trying to lure more of Chinese tourists. Times cited a report by Economic Times that came in August that India is revamping its tourism strategy in China aiming to see more footfalls from that country. It has also opened a full-fledged regional tourism office in China, planning to see 144 million tourists from the neighboring country in the next five years.

But despite these efforts, Chinese tourists still refuse to see India as a top destination to visit, thanks to the latter’s security and sanitation problems, the Times cited many Chinese as saying.

The news report spoke about an online travel agency member, according to whom the Chinese tourists are worried over reports that India has less public toilets and cow dungs are littered all over the places.

“I have to say that these reports about India are true, as Indians pay a lot of respect to cows. But many tourists travel by car, which means they would not step on the cow dung,” the Times cited the member as saying.

Besides the sanitation problem, the news about rape cases that have gone viral online has also left an impression among the Chinese that India is not safe.

There are also Chinese tourists who have been to India and have said good things about their experience but it seems the negative publicity takes time to be erased.

[slink]

I don't know, I am not really a fan of such bright color and the design these bathrooms have. Plus, it is quite difficult to find matching accessories like natural bathrobe. It will never match.

[GeneChing]

Kid playing on phone gets his butt stuck in toilet seat, parents call firefighters for help
Let this serve as a lesson for us all
by Alex Linder March 5, 2019 in News



In a cautionary tale for us all, a boy in the city of Wuhan managed to get his butt stuck in a toilet seat after spending too long sitting on the commode.

Unsurprisingly, the 6-year-old spent so much time on the crapper because he was playing on his phone. When he finally tried to dismount, he found he was unable to budge and cried out for help. However, his family members were also unable to pull him loose and were forced to call emergency services.

Demonstrating just how stuck the kid actually was, it took firefighters an hour to free him, finally succeeding by breaking the seat apart.

WTH? How does this even happen?

[PalmStriker]

Chinese finger puzzle technology.

[GeneChing]

Chinese finger puzzle technology.

um...what part of this boy is stuck in the finger trap then?

Mouthing Off by Andrew Sun
How a bad toilet can ruin a good meal in a restaurant: some of my Hong Kong hygiene horrors
You may expect rough toilet facilities in cheap and cheerful restaurants, but not in trendy places
Cooks who don’t wash their hands, tiny toilet cubicles and soaking wet stalls are among the common sights in Hong Kong.
Published: 12:48pm, 27 Feb, 2019


You may expect rudimentary facilities at a food market or cheap street restaurant, but not at a high class outlet. Photo: Alamy

It’s a dirty topic that people usually avoid in polite company, but there are some disgusting restaurant bathrooms in this city. You might assume I’m just talking about the hosed-down lavatories of dilapidated cha chaan teng, but no, this applies to restaurants in trendy areas, too.
An establishment might offer incredible food with award-winning glitzy design, but that’s all irrelevant if the toilet won’t flush properly or the bathroom walls look like a chimp went Jackson Pollock with his number one and number two.
Part of the problem is that some restaurants are so small. Owners want to maximise the dining room, so the lavatory ends up tinier than an plane loo. Honestly, some of the mini facilities require you to shift around awkwardly just to close the door. Or the urinal is so close to the sink, splashing is inevitable. Do you really want to wash your hands where someone else’s tinkle has dribbled?
Even if the potty is spacious enough, some are just ridiculously wet everywhere. In public toilets, I assume cleaners are just spraying water all over after using the same mop on every surface. I’ve lost count of the number of occasions when I nearly wiped out after exiting a sopping wet stall and slipped on a restaurant’s smooth hard floor. I can’t even imagine how women deal with such settings while wearing high heels.


A hygienic bathroom makes all the difference to a restaurant experience. Photo: Alamy

The thing is, true gastro connoisseurs say they don’t care about the setting, just as long as the food is good. Agreed. I can overlook a disgusting toilet if a particular dive does some stellar stir-fries. The same way I will accept sitting on a wobbly plastic stool or occasionally be berated by a rude server at the best cheap and cheerful noodle stands. This is the gritty and unpretentious local dining we always promote as counterpoint to Hong Kong’s glitz and glamour.
However I know some people get very uptight about cleanliness. They won’t eat at dai pai dongs or rough looking canteens because they think their hygiene levels are low. Whereas I think outdoor stalls or any place where you can see people prepare the food are likely to be cleaner because you can see everything. Those cooks can’t get away with picking their nose then plating your food.
Don’t let pretty dining room decor fool you. The kitchen you can’t see means the chef can hide his dirty deeds. Believe me, I’ve witnessed some atrocious hygiene by food workers not just at dim sum banquet halls but at posh restaurants.
One example comes straight out of a Seinfeld episode. While relieving myself in the men’s room, I notice someone in a kitchen uniform in another urinal doing the same business. When I finish, I wash my hands as you should: soap, lather, rinse and dry. As I finish up, I notice the uniformed guy quickly run his hand under some water and exit. No soap, no wipe, no nothing. Thank goodness I was at the end of my meal because I would hate to think he would next be handling my main course.
The other major complaint I have with restaurant workers is they often smoke illegally in locked bathroom stalls. As if we couldn’t tell. Is it any surprise so many Hongkongers prefer to dine in fancy hotels where creature comfort standards are set to a higher level. For a slight (or maybe not so slight) premium on the menu and drinks, we’ll gladly pay if it means a big, clean washroom and an attendant who hands you fresh paper towels. Bon appétit!

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Hygiene horrors of restaurant bathrooms

[wayold]

I was tempted to put this in our Shaolin toilets thread but this ain't Shaolin, or our Eating bitter in China thread, but this is sort of the converse. There's also our Low-flow toilets cause stink in San Francisco thread, but this is China.

Anyway, we have a lot of folks here who have traveled or are even traveling in China now, so I figured this would be a pretty easy thread to get rolling here.

Just can't believe, the 2nd photo. I am 99% sure that it's just a remain of a dismantled public toilet with its previously-existing walls and roofs removed...

[GeneChing]

13 years? Do they even shoot?

Chinese man jailed for making ‘gun’ toilet handles will face retrial
Facts were unclear and evidence insufficient in the original judgment last September, court rules
Defence challenges method used by police to identify the handles as guns
Laurie Chen
Published: 5:40pm, 10 Apr, 2019


Prosecutors said Jiang designed the flush handles to mimic air gun grips. Photo: Thepaper.cn

A man in northeast China who last year was sentenced to 13 years in prison for manufacturing toilet handles that looked like gun parts is facing retrial after a provincial court ruled that the original evidence was insufficient.
The Anhui Provincial High People’s Court ruled in a second-instance hearing on March 13 that the “facts were unclear and evidence insufficient” in the original judgment last September, when Jiang Zhiping was convicted of illegally manufacturing, trading and storing guns, Jiang’s relatives told news outlet Thepaper.cn on Tuesday.
As a result, the High Court has sent the case back to Anhui’s Fuyang Intermediate People’s Court for retrial.
Jiang, a designer of plastic household items from Jiangxi province, was responsible for the design and production of a high-pressure toilet flushing handle that was identified as a gun part by police who were investigating a network of gun sellers across China.
Police traced the supply network through an air gun that was discovered in a village near Fuyang in April 2016 and confiscated 3,870 toilet handles from a warehouse owned by Jiang.
Jiang’s sister, Jiang Xiaoqin, told Thepaper.cn that the toilet handle was the first patented item he had designed, and that patent certificates were presented by his defence lawyer in the first trial.
Prosecutors said Jiang created the design to mimic an air gun grip after researching it online, and said that the handle was identical in shape and function to a sample gun shown in court.
However, Jiang’s defence lawyer for his retrial, Yang Weiping, told Thepaper.cn that the method used to identify it as a gun was faulty, and not in line with Ministry of Public Security guidelines.


Jiang’s patent documentation for his design. Photo: Thepaper.cn

Jiang requested that his toilet handle be re-identified in the appeal.
Jiang’s family have received a statement from Fuyang police saying that they did not have Ministry of Public Security guidelines on gun appraisal between July 2016 and April 2017.
A date for the retrial has yet to be set.

THREADS
Chinese toilets
I will never understand China

[Jimbo]

Nothing to do with Chinese toilets, but...