adrianlondon Posted February 19, 2009 at 03:48 PM Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 at 03:48 PM British English appears to allow this ambiguity ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandaxiongmao Posted February 19, 2009 at 06:48 PM Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 at 06:48 PM I always flush the leaves down the toilet. Only problem here is that the toilet gets stained from the leaves that don't flush straight away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbradfor Posted February 19, 2009 at 07:09 PM Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 at 07:09 PM British English appears to allow this ambiguity ;) Ah! Interesting. As long as you don't try to flush them down the toilet. Unless the police are outside.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABCinChina Posted February 20, 2009 at 01:03 AM Report Share Posted February 20, 2009 at 01:03 AM I always flush the leaves down the toilet. Only problem here is that the toilet gets stained from the leaves that don't flush straight away. This is why there is an "art to flushing stuff down the toilet". Take it from the master of flushing stuff down the toilet who has flushed many interesting things in his younger and stupider days. You see, whenever you flush something greasy (or something that will stain the bowl) down the toilet, you always have to press the flush button so that the water is running. So with your left hand, you press the flush button, and ever-so-gently with your right hand you pour the contents into the toilet. Be quick, because you have to get all the contents out before the water stops gushing. But master of flushing stuff down the toilet you ask..."What if I want to conserve water because tea leaves don't deserve their own flush?" Well that is easy my friend. You have to get all the tea leaves in the CENTER of the bowl. This takes a steady hand and practice, but I know you can do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandaxiongmao Posted February 21, 2009 at 04:12 PM Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 at 04:12 PM My problem is that I want to save water, but often need the teapot/mug/cup again before the next time I flush, so the bowl gets stained from that too. What interesting things did you flush? Any consequences? I flush everything that isn't plastic/paper/metal and do just fine here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randall_flagg Posted February 21, 2009 at 08:59 PM Report Share Posted February 21, 2009 at 08:59 PM I flush everything that isn't plastic/paper/metal and do just fine here. No paper, eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABCinChina Posted February 22, 2009 at 06:53 AM Report Share Posted February 22, 2009 at 06:53 AM (edited) Hi Panda熊貓, Edit: I was just joking with the message above about the "master of flushing stuff down the toilet". One thing I have flushed are live fishes. (Don't ask me why, I was young) But I didn't have any consequences after flushing them like mutated gold fish coming back from the sewer to exact revenge on me. The US has great sewage treatment plants that separate organics from non-organics. So I saw on the discovery channel that things like condoms and such are routinely separated from the organics. Edited February 23, 2009 at 01:25 AM by ABCinChina Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pandaxiongmao Posted February 23, 2009 at 02:01 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 02:01 AM No paper, eh? I flush toilet paper, but I don't intentionally flush other types of paper down the toilet like coated flyers, note paper, etc. After I vacuum, I flush the contents of the canister, and those sometimes have small bits of paper in them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liuzhou Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:25 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:25 AM I have a friend. (This may come as a surprise.) He is back in the UK now, but while in China he had a sudden and urgent need to evacuate and went into the evacuation facilities in the local department store. In his hurry, he somehow managed to drop his cell phone into the Chinese style hole in the floor. As he desperately tried to catch it before it hit whatever hell lies below, he lost his balance and fell over. As he did so, his camera slipped from his pocket and went to keep the phone company. So, if you can flush digital equipment, I don't think a bit of paper is going to hurt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABCinChina Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:37 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:37 AM So you're saying that both his camera and phone dropped into one of those toilets where you have to squat? Or was this a pit toilet of some sort? There was no way he could grab them? (even if having to touch feces and piss?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liuzhou Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:40 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 06:40 AM Yeah. A squat toilet. On the fourth floor of a department store. The toilet just drains down all four floors to wherever. I dunno. Call a plumber! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heifeng Posted February 23, 2009 at 08:49 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 08:49 AM So you're saying that both his camera and phone dropped into one of those toilets where you have to squat? Or was this a pit toilet of some sort? There was no way he could grab them? (even if having to touch feces and piss?) yeah, but there are 2 types of squat toilets...actually 3 that I have seen. Liuzhou describes squat #2, which I have detailed below: type -1 has (some) water waiting for you when you arrive and swooshes down when you flush~~very similar to a western toilet. Retrieval of lost articles is possible if you don't flush. Type ~2 does indeed lead directly into a pit or a deep vertical pipe...water kinda trickles down it to pursuade whatever may not have been properly targeted, downward into the hole. Very similar to an out house squat which you need to pour some water down the chute. This seems to be where the cell phone, camera, (and I'll add) sunglasses losing risk is the highest. If they fell directly into the pit, there is no hope! Type 3~ the channel squat. one channel across the whole lavatory, which occasionally flushes so you can see what the stall upstream is sending down. Even if you can save something, you really really don't want to... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gougou Posted February 23, 2009 at 09:02 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 09:02 AM I would like to offer three more types, which are all of the above without the water/flushing. Those are the ones I seem to be coming across most of the time... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABCinChina Posted February 23, 2009 at 09:02 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 09:02 AM Type 2: The pit of no return! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcdefg Posted February 23, 2009 at 11:54 AM Report Share Posted February 23, 2009 at 11:54 AM "Is flushing used tea leaves down the toilet appropriate?" I live in an older six-story apartment building in Kunming. Am careful not to throw toilet tissue in the matong, but when I reload my chabei I do flush the dregs. My Chinese friends here do the same. This is slightly off topic, but probably not enough to warrant a new thread. Made an unpleasant discovery this week about the kitchen plumbing: It’s intimately connected with that of my upstairs and downstairs neighbors. Was out of town a few days and returned to three inches of standing water in all my rooms. It had a foul smell and a greenish oily sheen. Landlord called a plumber who used a long flexible “snake” to unclog the unsealed drain in my kitchen floor. Apparently some garbage made it down the pipe from upstairs as far as my level before getting hung up and causing a minor flood. All cleaned up now, but not without some mafan and expense. This happened despite my having hung a fine new red and gold fuzi upside down on my door for guonian (CNY.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clevermae Posted December 23, 2009 at 12:00 PM Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 at 12:00 PM All I know is that you should be careful that whatever stuff you throw in your toilet is something that can slide easily down the pipes, especially L-shaped pipes. Things like human hair tend to get stuck in the L pipes and can accumulate there, and may cause clog-ups in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted December 23, 2009 at 01:14 PM Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 at 01:14 PM don't throw in dental floss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xianhua Posted December 23, 2009 at 02:01 PM Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 at 02:01 PM You bunch of pampered urbanites . Get out into the Chinese countryside where the things you flush end up in a large pit at the back of the house. It really makes you take note of what goes down since all and sundry will be able to view the pit’s contents (should they so desire). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meng Lelan Posted December 23, 2009 at 03:04 PM Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 at 03:04 PM Well we don't live in countryside. And plumbers rates are extremely high so we have to be careful about what we flush down the toilet. Amazing this thread got revived. It seems like in these forums the two hot topics are sex and toilets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guoke Posted December 23, 2009 at 04:11 PM Report Share Posted December 23, 2009 at 04:11 PM What can you flush down the toilet? Shit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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