A new respect for hell

After my long journey to Linyi City I thought that I really needed to show some respect to my worst enemy! Yip, China’s public toilets in trains. I believe if you ever want to have a glimpse what that place (hell) is like, all you need to do is visit a toilet. You will quickly agree that hell is not really such a warm place, but rather a place where every inch of your body cringe when you enter. But I have to say that I made peace with my hell and I will explain to you now why I have a new respect for it.

So, arranging tickets for me to get from Linfen to Linyi took some time. But as you know I made it in good time. The reason that public transport is so busy during this time of year is because of the Chinese festive season. Literally millions of people head home to their families, friends and to neighboring provinces for this time of celebration. It is a mad rush and tickets need to be purchased well in advance, or you might just lose out and end up standing in a cold train for a couple of hours feeling like a sheep in the outback being transported somewhere. Only difference would be the weather!! I have to admit, I would much rather have been a sheep in the outback!

I did not understand how the trains could be so busy until I saw some statistics, and it all came to light. During the festive season alone, 118million people would have traveled on trains. This number is 8% higher than last year. Think of it like this… almost three times the population of the whole of South Africa using the public transport in a matter of two to three weeks. I think this makes it clearer as to the difficulty of finding tickets. To paint an even better picture, they will all be using the toilets on the trains. Apart from one person off course which is me!! Well, I did use it a couple of times, but only standing up. But, it was still not a good experience as someone before me missed while squatting. This was a poo legendary to China. You see, a western poo has a solid texture. A poo in China has more of a liquid substance. I will spare you the detail!! I did try my best to give it a spray down while standing… if you know what I mean!

But I think we need to show some respect and have a minute silence for this thing called hell, this thing that I believe we all need to experience once in our lives.


My hell

Never will we mock you
Never will we treat you bad
May we never “miss” you,
If we do, we won’t be sad

May I never need you,
Unless it is to stand
Never will I do a 2
I’d rather do it in my hand

(Linyi City, Shandong Province, China)