Watching where you step in Yangpu District

There is such a lot which is good about China but sometimes
I just despair. I have been here long enough to have got used to seeing grown
men urinating on the street and in the parks although I still think it’s uncivilised. 

I have never seen so many genitals on public display as on the
streets and buses in China. Mothers hold their children over public bins so
they can go to the toilet or in bushes in parks and on streets. I have even
seen a mother holding her child up so they could urinate in a supermarket aisle
(Carrefour, Nanjing). 

Last week just by the school where people have to cross the
road to go to the metro, a grandmother was wiping the bottom of her charge who
she had just helping defecate on the pavement. The split pants offer convenient
access and it’s just a matter of wiping it clean and throwing the paper onto
the pavement with the pile of shit. So now pedestrians have to be extra careful
when crossing the street – wouldn’t want to slip on that! 

Downtown Shanghai is gleaming, sparkly buildings, clean and
fast metro and the impressive skyline of the finance district – all great
assets of this great city but many people still prefer to go to the toilet in
the open air than to find the nearest public conveniences.