China is cultural mega-warehouse. The people’s culture has lived on for thousands of years — until now. The Chinese people are hungry for Westernization, and with the Olympics in Beijing and the world’s eye being cast on the country, much of the China we’ve read about or watched in movies is disappearing quickly. It’s sad.
Here’s just one, yet comical (to me), example.
China is famous for it’s lack of sanitary conditions. Here’s an example of a standard Chinese public facility.
The entrance:
The inside:
(those are toilets on the right – ‘squat pots’ as they are called – and a litrene on the left).
But, then, I read the following news article today.
China's famed Shaolin Temple installs luxury restrooms for tourists, monks
BEIJING - The simple life of monks at China's famed Shaolin Temple got an upgrade with the installation of luxury restrooms worth US$430,000, state media reported.
The official Xinhua News Agency said the most lavish of the restrooms measures more than 150 square metres 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 this spring, 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.