Having been in Japan where they wash their bum after every toilet stop and have fake water sounds to cover up your business noise, coming to China was expected to be a bit of a culture shock.

I expected holes on the ground and a lack of privacy. We had pretty good experiences in Shanghai but as we’ve headed west the standard of toilets has quickly deteriorated.

Also, quite unexpectedly, even when there are doors on the cubicles quite often the user of the toilet doesn’t close the door. Also the standard is to NOT provide toilet roll. A custom devised by a man, probably.

My final point is that even though the vast majority of the toilets that I’ve encountered here have had fully functional flushes they are seldom used. Even when the toilet is of the hole in the ground variety, leaving your bog business as a present for the next user is unnecessary.