Chapter 27 How to get "convenience" in Hong Kong?

Hong Kong can become "stinky", although there are many reasons, but the reality of Hong Kong is still "smelly" today, especially one kind of place - the toilet.When mainlanders walk on the streets of Hong Kong, when they look up inadvertently, a toilet may have appeared next to them, but it is strange, since the toilet is so close, why can't they smell the smell at all?Based on this alone, I would say that Hong Kong people have really entered into an incredible level of management of their city—counting more than 100 countries and regions around the world, all densely populated big cities, where is the toilet? A government is always a problem. Who can make all the toilets in a crowded city not smelly, so that pedestrians don't have to cover their noses and walk around the road, that is really not an easy task.

In May 2006, the Hong Kong special page of Xinhuanet released a message: Hong Kong publicly selected the "best" and "worst" public toilets online for the first time. This special election was jointly organized by the "Hong Kong Toilet Association" and "Radio Television Hong Kong". .When I saw this news, I was very surprised. There is still a special "Toilet Association" in Hong Kong? The "best" and "worst" public toilets still allow citizens to vote online?Moreover, Hong Kong citizens have to select the gold, silver and bronze medal winners of the "Best Public Toilet" in this "Toilet Contest". The "Jury Award" should be selected at the same time, and the four aspects of comfort, safety, design and sanitation of public toilets should be used as the basic criteria for the review.

The public toilets in Hong Kong are all over the streets and corners of the city. They don’t look fancy, but not only are they free of charge, but there are always people flushing them incessantly, unlike the “sculptural public toilets” that flourished in the Mainland in the first few years. It looks very poetic on the outside, but the guards inside, in addition to charging fees, or cleaning it several times a day as a symbol, who cares if the toilet is overflowing with filth, the pool wall is scaled, and there are piles of dirty paper in the corners. Tuantuan, everywhere has long been a safe haven for mosquitoes, flies and reptiles?

I remember once when I first came to Hong Kong, I walked to the outer wall of the east gate of the Happy Valley racecourse and saw a row of beautiful yellow houses. I thought it was part of the facilities of the racecourse, so I asked my husband who was walking with me, and my husband immediately shook his head and said no, then It's not a facility in the racecourse, it's just a public toilet on the street.When I heard it, ah, really?Immediately committed an occupational disease, and followed: "I'm sorry, I have a urgency to urinate." After saying that, he stepped into the toilet, finished his work in this public toilet, and hurriedly observed carefully, but saw that all surfaces, whether it was the countertop or the floor, were everywhere. It was spotless, the sink was free from sundries and stains, and the mirror on the wall was free from water stains. In addition, the door of the toilet was the same as that in the bathrooms of big hotels in Beijing. There was even a hand dryer and paper towels.A sister-in-law was wearing water boots and was dragging away one or two wet footprints that the toilet occupant had just made on the floor.To be honest, I was really emotional at the time, and this kind of "everything" was not expressed at one time, but continued throughout the next three years.In the next three years in Hong Kong, I don’t know how many toilets of different levels have been “reconnaissance”: hotels, high-end clubs; piers, stations, parks, small restaurants, and even ordinary toilets on many streets. There is no pungent smell, and there is 100% free toilet paper (except that there are too many people, and there is no time to replenish it). This makes people feel convenient and considerate, and it also makes me, a mainlander, quickly forget a little common sense in life in the past: Going to the toilet, do you have any paper in your pocket?

Once, a dozen or so colleagues from our unit and I went to Hong Kong Tai Tam Country Park to have a barbecue. It took more than an hour to enter the mountain, and we had to climb several hillsides when we came out. At this time, we saw a very simple I just want to go to the bathroom for convenience, but I wonder if such a remote "mountain toilet" will have free toilet paper?My colleagues and I almost made a bet on this matter, because some people said "yes"; Hikers constantly restocking toilet paper?In the end, I went in. Fortunately, I didn’t make a bet. If I lost the bet, the “small toilet in the mountain” was not only as clean as the ones in the city, but also had toilet paper. Man is ready for a constant care.

Hong Kong people can manage the toilets like this. Other questions, such as why there are few mosquitoes and flies in the whole city of Hong Kong?Compared with Beijing, where the weather is so dry, the mosquitoes and flies in summer cannot be driven away or exterminated.But in Hong Kong, during the long summer, I hardly ever saw a single mosquito or fly in the city.Open the windows for ventilation every morning, and open all the glass windows in the kitchen when cooking at night. Never have to worry about mosquito bites flying into the house annoyingly.If you don't go to the grass in the mountains, there is little chance of being bitten by patches of red bumps on your body.

Why are there so few mosquitoes and flies in Hong Kong? At the beginning, this question was still lingering in my head, but after studying the toilets in Hong Kong, I think there is no need to pursue this question, and there is no need to find any ABC answers with difficulty. Once in North Point (where most immigrants from Fujian live), I saw people using a tool I had never seen before to deal with sidewalks in broad daylight. The workers sweating on their necks are not road officials, but cleaners. They hold a high-pressure air water gun in their hands, and use this tool to clean the sundries and dirt on the sidewalk that are stuck in the cracks in the floor.The ground that the high-pressure air water gun cleans is only a little bigger than a palm, but its strength is huge, which reminds people of doctors patiently washing customers' teeth bit by bit in the dental clinic.

It turns out that the reason why Hong Kong is clean is that the streets and alleys cannot be slapped and slapped, and someone regularly cleans it there repeatedly.With such methods, such carefulness, such coverage, and such contributions, how could the whole city become "stinky"?How can outsiders have to stand on their toes and frown from time to time wherever they go?