Toilets
The two words all Chinese know are “bye-bye” and “WC”. So you’ll have no problem asking for the toilet!
It is fair to say that Chinese toilets are probably one of the most unpleasant aspects of your visit. You may not experience it in Beijing and Shanghai but you may find rather unpleasant public toilets throughout the rest of the country in more rural areas.
However, they are improving and downtown public toilets can actually be quite clean. Public toilets are always hidden in small streets in neighbourhoods (usually older areas that have not succumbed to mass commercial urbanisation). These are always free and usually open 24/7. It's a great social provision which shows there is care my local authorities for it's people. I can think of many Western countries that do not provide this, or there may be a fee or the facilities are akin to drug-dens. Not China.
Some private toilets have a very small charge for, mainly in tourist spots. In less developed parts of the country, public conveniences are of either the ‘hole in the ground’ (squat) variety or an unsightly (partitioned) central gutter. Then there are usually cubicles with often unlockable doors, or just with basic, tiled low walls for only slight privacy.
It’s quite common to stroll in, smell the deadly air and find a line of squatting customers all busy on their phones during mid-business and in full view. You can always wash your hands though but you'll need to take your own tissue paper.
Toilets are easy to find with ‘male’ (Nan) signs showing a kind of masculine ‘square’ character and the ‘female’ (Nu) Chinese character has a sort of cross on it, somewhat resembling elegance.
These characters, or pictures rather, make it easy to remember which is which and avoid a possibly embarrassing situation!
Nan (man): Nu (woman)
