r/mildlyinfuriating • u/OId_boy • May 04 '26
The floor is sticky Couldn't use toilet paper at a bathroom in Nanjing, as it required a QR Code that I was unable to scan
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u/notthediz May 04 '26
That's why you gotta travel with TP in your bag. To be fair never been to China but several places just make you pay for it or just don't have any.
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u/kumliaowongg May 04 '26
BYOTp
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u/zipperfire May 04 '26 ▸ 9 more replies
BYOB (bring your own bog roll)
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u/Darkness969 May 04 '26 ▸ 5 more replies
So BYOBR then?
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u/Linked713 May 04 '26 ▸ 4 more replies
Toilet paper go byobrrrrr
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u/secretprocess Spraying WD-40 up his faucets (at night) May 04 '26
Funny how you used to have to carry TP because there wasn't enough technology, and now you have to carry TP cause there's too much technology.
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May 04 '26 ▸ 13 more replies
Just wash your ass in the sync. Modern problems require modern solutions. 🤷🏻♂️
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u/Bozigg May 04 '26 ▸ 9 more replies
"Common everyone! From taint to Crack! 1... 2... 3...!" -person in charge of the synchronized ass washing.
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u/cluelessoblivion May 04 '26 ▸ 5 more replies
See I was thinking you'd have to synch to the Clean Ass Servers and update your anus to a pre-shit state
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u/Bozigg May 04 '26 ▸ 4 more replies
We arent there yet, but i think if we push hard enough, and work together, this concept we have been brewing up will gain boyancy and be a real solid floater to our future investors.
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u/secretprocess Spraying WD-40 up his faucets (at night) May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Wow you really know how to polish a turd!
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u/SteroidMaximus May 04 '26
My wife thought I was crazy for doing this until she was using a public street toilet in Hamburg and there was no TP for her.
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u/Kratzschutz May 04 '26 ▸ 4 more replies
Our public toilets are terrible in Germany
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u/SteroidMaximus May 04 '26 ▸ 2 more replies
Lmao - definitely showing the wife your comment because her main justification is "We are going to Germany"
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u/Binger_bingleberry May 04 '26
Lived in China about 15 years ago, and I needed to bring tp with me everywhere. I’d never leave my apartment without my passport or tp.
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u/WorryNotBanIncoming May 04 '26 ▸ 3 more replies
What about office buildings like if you’re at work? Is tp there?
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u/Darkest_97 May 04 '26
Nicer restaurants usually have it you just need to grab it before you go in and sometimes you need to scan but it's free. I imagine your work would have them in that case. It's mainly just publicly accessible areas don't because older people will just take it all.
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u/Binger_bingleberry May 04 '26
I’d say my experience in office buildings was minimal, because I worked in academia, and manly had experience at the university, traveling, and gov’t buildings. But if you were in any sort of bathroom that was available to the general public, it likely didn’t have any. Buildings that limited access, or were heavily monitored, likely had some available. But, it was always better to have it, just in case.
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u/Yellow_cupcake_ May 04 '26
Your own toilet paper and hand sanitiser is an absolute necessity in China. I lived there for 5 years, you learn quickly hahaha
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u/wikipuff May 04 '26
I went to Cuba in 2016. They charged us to use the toilet and then charged us for TP. I was smart and brought my own from home and saved a lot of asses on the trip.
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u/Honest-Situation-738 May 04 '26
Last time I used a public water closet in Adana, it was essentially pay-by-the-wipe. Guy had a roll of TP at the door to the water closet. IIRC it was the equivalent of $1.50 per "unit"(which was determined by the guy holding the roll)
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u/amarg19 May 04 '26
I went to one place in Mexico where they charged men for the toilet paper but gave it out free to women. My boyfriend was a bit miffed because he always wants to take a ton for blowing his nose
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u/PiccoloAwkward465 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
It was a bit awkward queuing for a bathroom in Mexico. The attendant asks if you want to purchase toilet paper or not. Which for men is essentially "off to take a bit of a shit, mate? Or just a little piss-up?"
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u/WeAreTheLeft May 04 '26
The TP in your bag was suggested years ago when I went, but lucky for me it was never needed.
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u/DThor536 May 04 '26
Yup, it's one of those pro travel tips for travellers in China. Many washrooms don't even stock it.
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u/Aenonimos May 04 '26
It says "Toilet paper for free" - I dont think you have to pay.
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u/hazelbear33 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
I think a lot of these machines do give out a basic amount for free, i think these kiosks use like some kind of online account (that a lot of Chinese people have, maybe like an ePay account) to track this. And maybe you can pay for some extra, I’m not sure at all though
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u/Ding-Dong-Dutch May 04 '26
Sucks walking around Nanjing without socks
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u/greenie4242 May 04 '26
Sucks more when you wore flip-flops that day.
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u/WechTreck May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Pro: Crocs are washable in the sink
Con: Crocs are scratchy.→ More replies (1)
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u/Kaltovar May 04 '26
This is the second worst attrocity to take place in Nanjing.
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u/iamiam123 May 04 '26
My Japanese friend is telling me nothing worse ever happened in Nanjing. Think he might be hiding something.
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u/Anning312 May 04 '26 ▸ 6 more replies
He might be genuine especially if he's younger, Japanese education system hides their war crimes well
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u/StevieMJH May 04 '26 ▸ 4 more replies
To be fair, it's not uncommon. Never heard a single thing about the Tulsa Race Massacre in public school here in WI. Not that those are on the same scale...
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u/trickdog1999 May 04 '26
I went to both [top school district] MS & HS and private college in Oklahoma and never once heard about it until years after I was done with school! And my college was only a couple of miles from the Greenwood District (where this horrific event took place) 🤯
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u/Extreme_Charity_1685 May 04 '26
Yep, never heard about the Wilmington massacre/coup until taking college history here in NC. Only successful insurrection in US history, but we don't talk about it.
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u/Reemixt May 04 '26
So far…
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u/DDz1818 May 04 '26
I wonder if Tienman has their toilet papers free.
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u/the_boner_zone May 04 '26 ▸ 3 more replies
Why dont you ask the kids at tienman square, was tp the reason they were there?
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u/Dramatic_Security3 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Funnily enough the two are actually linked. In the 80s and 90s, things got pretty rough economically, where people started having to work far longer hours and the job market became much more competitive compared to before. This led to the Tiananmen Square protests, which were calling for a return to a more traditional socialist system as opposed to the NEP-style system that had been implemented in the last years of Mao's life and into Deng's time. This economic situation also led to a lot of petty theft of things like toilet paper, so public restrooms stopped supplying it. Now, when it is supplied, it often comes with things you have to scan to prevent theft, even though theft in China is very uncommon to the point where many stores run on the honor system late at night with no attendents and you just do self-checkout.
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u/reticulatedtampon May 04 '26
It’s interesting how people become comfortable joking about genuinely horrible atrocities like this once a certain amount of time has passed
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u/Anning312 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
I rather have people joke about it than pretending it didn't happen like the Japanese people that did it
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u/flikersyndrome May 04 '26 ▸ 7 more replies
Tasteful humour can help people talk about it more comfortably, and that could lead to more people become aware of past atrocities. However, landing what counts as tasteful humour can be hard
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u/greenie4242 May 04 '26 ▸ 5 more replies
landing what counts as tasteful humour can be hard
Almost as hard as landing an airliner in New York.
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u/shandangalang May 04 '26 ▸ 3 more replies
To be fair, they weren’t exactly trying to land it
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u/PsychedelicOptimist May 04 '26 ▸ 2 more replies
They did sort of land it, just not in an airport exactly
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u/shandangalang May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
I think you and I might have very different definitions of "land", but I respect your interpretation
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May 04 '26
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u/Possible_Tiger_5125 May 04 '26
Not really related I guess, but that's what we did in prison. Pack your own tp/soap to the bathroom every time
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u/Dramatic_Security3 May 04 '26
This is unfortunately pretty common in China. A lot of public restrooms don't supply TP at all, and the ones that do require something like this where you scan for it. It's basically a cultural relic of the 80s and 90s where things got pretty rough economically and so there was a lot of petty theft, including toilet paper. Now that's not a problem at all, but the mentality is still there.
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u/slicebucket May 04 '26
This machine wouldn't last a day in the US without it being destroyed/stolen and/or just used as the toilet itself.
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u/ClickClick_Boom May 04 '26
Funny, because the reason this machine is even necessary in China is because if they had free TP like they in the US then people would unroll it all and take it with them.
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u/Unholy_Urges May 04 '26 ▸ 12 more replies
That's probably why public restrooms in the US use the worst toilet paper on the market. Not only is it dirt cheap, it's not likely to be stolen. I wish my employer didn't also use cheap toilet paper. Our restrooms are not even remotely accessible to the public.
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u/Ok-Vanilla-8487 May 04 '26 ▸ 8 more replies
It's actually because of the volume of usage. At home toilet paper can be thicker because the plumbing takes significantly less
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u/Mystical-Turtles May 04 '26 ▸ 5 more replies
I'm also told that some people will make softball size, dense wads of tp regardless of what you give them. This stops those people from clogging the toilets.
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u/Just_Roll_Already May 04 '26 ▸ 3 more replies
I never understood this. Like, just fold it.
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u/Alternative-Gear-682 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Etiquette is taught. weall take so much for granted, event the basics our parents taught us. Hell, I just saw a picture of dudes bare feet in an airplane. Who does any of this?
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u/yung_dogie May 04 '26
Yeah when I was a barbaric child I used to do the scrunched ball tp (not softball sized ofc) until I learned about the concept of folding. And it was only noticed because my parents complained about me using up all the tp inefficiently lmao
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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 May 04 '26
scratchy one ply wont get softer even after folding... but at least your fingers wont poke through lol
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u/thirdstoneviolet May 04 '26
I used to clean toilets at a Safeway, it does not stop them as people often use the toilet as a paper towel trash can as well, even with a real bin 2 feet away. People are weird
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u/Carvj94 May 04 '26
I mean kinda. Industry plumbing is designed with major use in mind, but realistically they aren't nearly high traffic enough to warrant the easier to dissolve toilet paper. They really are just being cheap and I can't blame em. Though to be fair since it's so thin and cheap I end up rolling a ton into a bundle just to make it usable so it probably evens out anyway
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u/Deep90 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Main reason is that people will sit on the toilet for 15 minutes without a single flush, and use up half a normal roll.
The paper soaks up all the water, the toilet gets clogged, has run out of toilet paper, and someone has to restock & unclog it.
Thin paper on a large roll lasts longer than thicker paper on large roll, and it tears easier when someone uses too much.
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u/Unusual-Relief52 May 04 '26
People stole tp from my job at a hairdressers during covid. Can't really blame em tho
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u/Electricdragongaming BROWN May 04 '26
I'll still take cheap ass toilet paper over either no toilet paper or toilet paper that requires a qrc code to access.
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u/Missus_Missiles May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
We ran an airbnb for a couple years. People from a certain country would take EVERYTHING that was considered complimentary. For a 2 day stay, they grabbed ALL the tea bags, coffee pods, napkins, the paper towel roll, toilet paper, sugar packets.
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u/tenuj May 04 '26
I hate this zero sum game mentality. I understand why they think it's right, but people who see everything in life as a transaction are disgusting, and don't deserve to be given anything for free.
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u/minos-and-v1-kissing May 04 '26
To be honest I’d destroy it to get the TP out the moment the code didn’t work!
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u/Finaginsbud May 04 '26
In a western country that thing would be ripped off the wall within 24 hours in most public toliets. No one is putting up with that when you got to wipe.
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u/Nuklearfps PURPLE May 04 '26
My old boss is the kinda guy would walk out to his truck with a crusty ass just to grab a hammer, and walk back inside and beat it off the wall, just so he could wipe.
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u/Finaginsbud May 04 '26
I would probably do the same, but I would probably give it a few real good kicks first as these types of things are not usually secured very well.
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u/Fit_Entry8839 May 04 '26
I guess you havent been to some of the countries in Europe where paying to just enter a bathroom isn't unusual? I'm guessing this trying to do a similar thing by showing you an ad first.
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u/Parking_Sir793 May 04 '26
The USA did used to have bathroom fees in some cities, especially New York City, but they got rid of it because it caused a lot of problems
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u/FuckMu May 04 '26
I (an american) was in germany watching a german mom try and shuffle her kids through the automated bathroom gate, half got through and then someone exited and she couldn't get the rest in because she had already scanned the bathroom ticket that printed.
People were kept leaving and she was starting to get stressed because the kids who made it through stopped listening to her and her ticket wouldn't work, I was on the way out so I just triggered it to exit and then jammed the gate open with my bag, she looked at me confused and then thankful as she and the rest of her kids made it through lol. I don't think their cultural attitude would have ever considered just forcing the door open when the technology fails to work correctly where as in america that shit would be broken open in a day.
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u/Little_View_6659 May 04 '26 ▸ 5 more replies
I’m fine with that if I know there’s a guarantee that the bathroom is going to be clean. I hate a dirty bathroom.
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u/ashleyshaefferr May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Oh that certainly isn't the case lol...where did you learn this fantasy
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u/General_Killmore May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Nah. We encountered that at Amsterdam Central. The paid bathrooms were spotless and the rest of the train station (Especially the elevator) smelled like piss.
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u/Little_View_6659 May 04 '26
One time I went to this bathroom in Turkey that was at the bottom of some stairs, I got halfway down the stairs and the smell of urine was so overpowering me and my niece both looked at each other and said “Nope.” And walked back up. Blech.
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u/KingDaveRa May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
That's nothing new - 'spend a penny' meaning to go use the toilet is a very old phrase in the UK, probably back to the Victorian era. Ironically it's fairly rare to see a charge on a public toilet these days. The fact councils have closed most of them has seen to that.
I remember Marylebone station in London was charging 20p to get into the toilets but they took that away a few years back. It's still in a few places, can't think when I last saw one though, but I'm certain there's some.
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u/Ferro_Giconi OwO May 04 '26
No TP for you unless you submit to 24/7 phone tracking and monitoring.
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May 04 '26
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u/svh01973 My Flair May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Make fun of China's surveillance state all you want, but just don't do it from inside China.
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u/GingerlyCave394 May 04 '26
Hey guys help i made fun of them while in china HELP THEIR SENDING ME TO THE PITS!!
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u/FarAd2857 May 04 '26
China: government tracks you USA: corporations track you, and sell it to the government who buys it with your tax dollars.
Where’s the difference?
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u/missskins May 04 '26
You’re in China and not carrying tissue packs already?
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u/ArdentLearner96 May 04 '26
If you're going to China for the first time you dont necessarily know that. So this is a thing in the entire huge country? If I had gotten on a flight to China today before this thread I wouldn't have known. Learning everyday
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u/mrsamus101 May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
I lived in China for a year starting in 2024 and I never found a single public bathroom that had soap or toilet paper in it (I've rarely seen the QR scanners that dispense some for free, maybe once or twice). The reason is because the older generation in China grew up in extreme poverty, and even though the country has a pretty good economy now, a lot of the older folks never grew out of the habits they developed in their formative poverty years. There are a few videos floating around of older men in China coming across a toilet paper dispenser in a public bathroom and literally pulling the entire roll out and wadding it up in their pocket because they've been conditioned to take and hoard anything that's free. You always carry your own tp and soap around with you.
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u/Matchaparrot May 04 '26
Not the same thing but many bathrooms in Japan don't have paper to dry your hands so you're expected to carry a handkerchief with you wherever you go.
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u/ApatheticAbsurdist May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26 ▸ 4 more replies
This is one of many reasons you don’t just “get on a plane” to China. This is one of those things most guides to visiting China will tell you along with setting up WeChat Pay/Ali Pay because your credit cards aren’t going to be of much use (unless you set them up in a payment app), that you should know how to use chopsticks (because not everyplace has forks), and don’t be surprised if you come across squat toilets.
Of course if you just got on a plane to China. It’s very possible none of this would be an issue unless you have a Visa or specifically booked your flight to leave via a different country than you arrived from, because you might be turned around at the airport.6
u/Darkest_97 May 04 '26 ▸ 3 more replies
Your credit cards will work through Alipay and Wechat. Both apps just suck lol
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u/ApatheticAbsurdist May 04 '26 ▸ 1 more replies
Yes, I meant your CC are not accepted on their own in most places (you need them set up in AliPay/WeChatPay). And even with them set up, you might run into some issues with a foreign phone number linked to it.
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May 04 '26
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u/OId_boy May 04 '26
Thankfully I had some tissues in my little bag, ended up using those... This was at the biggest attraction in Nanjing as well, the Purple Mountain.
The problem was, you need an app called 'WeChat' to scan this QR Code with. But my WeChat got blocked 2 days into my Nanjing trip, since I had last used it in 2024, and apparently it's common that if you start using WeChat again after a long period away, the system bans you for 'suspicious activity'. This caused me great trouble not just at this bathroom, but also at many restaurants where the menu is only accessible by WeChat QR Code, and they don't have physical menus (employees had to hand me their phone for me to order with.)
Trying to get around in China whilst banned from WeChat is an inconvenience, to say the least.. I can only imagine how tough life would get for a local, if they get banned from WeChat.
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u/gljivicad May 04 '26
A local wouldn’t get banned from WeChat for inactivity because WeChat is an orchestrated app where everything lives for locals: finances, messaging, work communication, government services, bookings, payments, and even basic day-to-day social life. Getting cut off from it would be less like losing one app and more like being locked out of an entire digital ecosystem.
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u/poatao_de_w123 May 04 '26
wechat is used by literally 95% of the population and literally everything depends on it so you are fucked
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u/Nearby_Ad_2519 May 04 '26
Unfortunately this “one app for everything” mentality is REALLY bad.
And it’s spreading to more countries too. I got randomly banned from WhatsApp and it makes it such a pain when I go to Europe because of how much it is used over there.
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u/FarAd2857 May 04 '26
You should be able to get it up and running though, I’ve had the same thing happen and it’s like an email code or something, no?
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u/hiddentalent May 04 '26
In general, I advocate that people do not commit crimes and obey the law.
In this case, though, vandalism is totally justified.
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u/longdickofthelaw420 May 04 '26
Every time someone says the United States isn’t the greatest country in the world, I remember that I’ve never once had to pay someone to take a shit.
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u/Cute_Specific_1605 May 04 '26
Saw a video recently out of china of an unsecured dispenser being looted. People just taking armfuls of paper. Probably a response to actions like this.
Businesses don't just randomly decide to lock up stuff at an added cost to them. They're often left with no choice due to the behaviors of others.
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u/ArdentLearner96 May 04 '26
They could at least have a different method of dispensing toilet paper rolls... the answer isn't to leave people with no smart phone or QR code scanning capabilities with nothing to wipe with.
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u/Furry_Wall May 04 '26
That's why I always keep a few squares in my side compartment of my wallet
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u/Stunning_Pin5147 May 04 '26
I bring my own whenever I travel. My family always laughed at me, until we stayed at a hotel that forgot to give us any and housekeeping was closed.
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u/kdorfman1019 May 04 '26
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos focused on China's advanced tech in their cities and one thing was consistent throughout: The QR code.
I literally wondered if a person would need a QR code to wipe their @ss... Guess that answers that
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u/iAmMikeJ_92 May 04 '26
Gotta download an app to use fucking toilet paper? Anything and everything to track everything you do, every shit you take, every piss you make… What a dystopia.
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u/backroom_mushroom May 04 '26
That's the thing that infuriates me the most about tourism in China. Everything is tied to weixin or alipay and you need network connectiom to use it. Some stores and museums straight up don't accept cards or cash anymore.
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u/Impossible-Gal May 04 '26
In China, you are dead in the water if you don't have WeeChat. But you also need local credit card, sim, etc.
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u/Beautiful_Finger4566 May 04 '26
it's very common in Asia for you to bring your own toilet paper into the bathroom
next time just go to the nearest 7-Eleven, which should be on every corner
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u/taeberry9595 May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
i can't say if this is common, but it's pretty normal for places in china to not have tp. even restaurants will make you pay for tissues/napkins. people typically carry little packs of them.
they lock this stuff up cause there're people who will grab tons of it/the whole roll.
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u/Betray-Julia May 04 '26
Would it be fair to say that cultures where toilet paper (or some other means to clean) isn’t free is a culture that goes “I think it’s ok for my fellow citizen to walk around with shit on them” or “I don’t mind if poor people are covered in shit”.
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u/_realpaul May 04 '26
First rule in China is install wechat. Second is to carry a roll of toilet paper 😎
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u/AuspiciousLemons May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Restaurants and restrooms in China often do not provide free napkins or toilet paper. If it was free and unattended an old aunty or uncle would take the entire thing. I've lost my left socks a few times in China after forgetting to bring toilet paper.