Forbidden City, Beijing, China
Top-ranked Toilet
The Forbidden City in Beijing is one of those grand-scale displays of history that everyone should experience first-hand. It provides a striking reminder of the exalted opulence in which Imperial family members once lived. However, at the same time it lends insight into the lack of technological creature comforts accessible to even those of the highest station in life. Consider, for example, the area of hygienic indoor plumbing. Today, any old coolie can experience the grandeur that is flushable indoor plumbing.
There is no better reminder of this than the 4-star rated toilets to be found on the Forbidden City grounds. Now, I must admit to being skeptical about this rating system. I traveled fairly extensively through Beijing, and never saw a 1-star toilet, though I did see some gagged holes in the floor. However, if you look at the sign closely, you can see that someone actually tried to add a fifth star. Now how psyched does one have to be about the cleanliness of a toilet to deface a public sign under an authoritarian regime? This isn’t America where you might get a ticket for a court date six months later at which time you may get $100 fine – if they can read the officer’s handwriting and tell what the ticket was for in the first place. In China, defacing a public sign is probably punishable by a sentence of cleaning out squat holes for the rest of one’s life.
Mind & Eye 