Squat Toilets Could Pose Olympic-Size Problems At The Beijing Games

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There’s a new concern with the Beijing Olympics: the toilet situation. There were over 30 test events held by organizers and the squat toilets that have been provided are a source of complaints.

“We have asked the venues to improve on this, to increase the number to sit-down toilets,” Yao Hui, deputy director of venue management for the Beijing organizers, said Wednesday. “Many people have raised the question of toilets.”

This past weekend the same toilets that will be used at the Games was used by the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the new Olympic baseball venue. The portable toilets are used widely in Asia but very rarely in the West. Yao knows it will be impossible to change out all the permanent toilets at 37 venues. 31 of those venues are in Beijing itself. Right now the focus will be on satisfying three groups of visitors: athletes, journalists and the Olympic family. Roughly, that means the VIPs of the games have a chance of sitting down at a toilet instead of squatting.

Yao and team have renovations underway at the three largest venues. Visitors at the 91,000-seat “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, the “Water Cube” and the National Indoor Stadium should be able to sit down when in the washrooms.

Beijing is hoping that the games bring in 500,000 tourists during the Games running from Aug. 8 to 24.

With the Chinese government spending at least $40 billion on the infrastructure, modern toilets seemed to have slipped their minds.

Most of the Chinese people are used to the squat toilet, but nowadays more and more people demand sit-down toilets,” Yao said. “However, it will take some time for this transition.”

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