China is rushing to install sit-down toilets for the nearly 500,000 foreigners who'll visit the Beijing Olympics.
The drive to build thousands of sit-downs came after complaints that Olympics' venues only offered Asian-style squat toilets.
A lack of Western-style facilities was the common complaint after more than three dozen trial runs Games’ sites.
"A lot of parties have raised the question of toilets... We have told the venues to improve on this," Yao Hui, deputy head of venue management, told the BBC
He said bathroom renovations were already under way at three key venues.
As people who have traveled with me to some of China's far reaches can attest – particularly on Hainan – most Chinese are used to the (sometime just a hole-in-the-ground) squat toilet.
Yao said that the proportion of squat toilets to sit-down facilities would vary depending on the nature of each venue. Most of the bathroom facilities at the 91,000-seat National Stadium - known as the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube and the National Indoor Stadium "should be" sit-down style.
Beijing will spend $40 billion on 37 venues. The Beijing Olympics are set to commence on August 8… or 8-8-08… an auspicious string of numbers for the Chinese.
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