Errant weeing will no longer be tolerated in Shenzhen. From yesterday, new regulations made any instance of uncivilized behavior in public bathrooms in the city liable to a 100 yuan fine. As Shenzhen Evening Newsreports today, however, enforcing straight weeing is much easier said than done.
Yesterday 1 September was the first day in which new regulations on the use of public toilets came into effect in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province. The new rules are targeted at errant weeing (i.e. urine that ends up around instead of inside the urinal), spitting, smoking, littering, graffiti and other instances of uncivilized behavior in bathrooms, which will be liable to a fine of 100 yuan. The errant weeing violation described above have been jokingly referred to online as the “Skew Weeing Penalty” 尿歪罚款.
So in light of the new regulations, a journalist from Shenzhen Evening News yesterday went to a public bathroom in Shenzhen to see how the new rules are being enforced. As the journalist reports today, not only did the great number of “uncivilized actions” fall far short of his expectations, there was no-one in sight to hand out 100 yuan fines to the offenders. Worse, following questions from the journalist, no-one visiting the bathrooms even knew there were new rules in place. One of the cleaners laughed when she spoke to the journalist, pointing out that enforcing rules within public bathrooms is rather problematic.
Rather surprisingly, the journalist writes that “Skew Weeing” is not a problem in the female toilet. OK. Instead, littering is the biggest problem in the female toilet, as some women tend to throw discarded toilet paper on the floor. The journalist noticed this very thing in the public toilet in Shenzhen, where a pile of toilet paper would pile up on the floor every three minutes, even though the rubbish bin is only five steps away.
The situation is of course much worse in the men’s toilet, where all the uncivilized actions mentioned above can be observed. Many men don’t wash their hands after using the toilet, and throw rubbish and cigarette butts into the urinals. Skew weeing is very common, especially among men aged 40 and above (perhaps they might be a marketing target for the new “pee straight funnels” that the Nanfang reported on today?).
Following his investigations, however, the journalist reports that those mostly responsible for the uncivilized behavior are not locals from Shenzhen, but outsiders who “are not used to using toilets that can flush”.
Links and sources
Shenzhen Evening News (深圳晚报): 多数市民不知尿歪要罚百元
The Nanfang: NEW SHENZHEN “PEE STRAIGHT” FUNNELS AIM TO HELP YOU AVOID COSTLY FINE
Satan Lucky is the pen name of cartoonist and illustrator based in Beijing. He publishes some of his work on 
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