Editor's note: A survey conducted by ChinaDaily.com.cn shows some 57 percent of foreigners find public toilets rather annoying while traveling in China, followed by air pollution (36 percent) and tourism scams (24%). Your participation is greatly appreciated to help us improve China's image of tourism worldwide.

mbursian (US)

I never encountered a squat toilet, much less heard of one until I came to China. Ignorantly, toilets were not on my list of things to research prior to arriving in China, thus I was a little perplexed with that inevitable first encounter. Thankfully, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the basics... it's fairly logical of what goes where and how to somewhat proceed with business. I quickly learned the first cardinal rule in a public facility: always carry paper and have it handy. It was a small blessing that I had a map on my possession. I couldn't fathom the idea of using one of the extra pages from my passport... but I would have. I resided several months in a hotel until I found a job and could settle in. On the first day came a lesson with the second cardinal rule: never flush paper down the toilet. It was a Western-style toilet and I assumed I was a pro at using one of these... wrong. My room lacked a plunger and I had to summon help from the hotel. They were not impressed, but graciously forgave my ignorance... and left the plunger behind.

A foreigner feels very overwhelmed about squat toilets. [Photo/Agencies]