Will there eventually come a day when other cities refer to themselves as, “The Suwon of (insert country name here)?”
Probably not. But Suwon has carved out its niche as the first city in the world to have a toilet-themed park.
Though it opened earlier this year, the BBC recently ran a piece on it, which was then followed by several large media outlets worldwide –giving ample reading material should you visit.
You can check out the city tourist site for more info on “Suwon’s Restroom Culture.” And if you find simply visiting the park inadequate for your desired level of involvement, you can also join the Suwon Restroom Culture Association.
All jokes aside on constructing a theme-park paying homage to the can, it’s great that Suwon puts effort into improving public restrooms. George Constanza would certainly approve.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Flushing toilets were used in Britain in 3100BC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet#History
Some theme park — I heard the rides were crappy!
Jeffery Hodges
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What’s the Korean word for “Upper-decker”?
Jeongbalsan had one back in 2006, and it had most likely been around for a few years before I saw it.
Shameless self-promotion, but I went here shortly after it was revamped – http://www.travelwireasia.com/2012/03/destination-suwon-toilet-museum-mr-toilets-house/. Don’t go just after lunch
Good stuff, Mr. Backe
How did I know that I would find HJH here with a shitty joke?
Answer: it’s alimentary!
‘Squat and Drop’ takes on new meaning.
A new destination for devotees of copro-tourism – Gerry’s going to be excited.
Stay classy, Korea.
Cactus wrote (#8):
What’s the old meaning?
In the immortal words of you ‘Why should I tell you’? But since I’m not feeling petulant, I’ll tell you – it’s part of fire fighting training.
i remember reading a book review in the nyt that centered on poop. the author wasn’t trying to be lurid but she said she noticed how poop made people sick during her travels to third world countries. she wondered how people handled this problem in the past. britain may have had a flushing toilet long ago but most people in the west were very casual about the whole affair beofre the mid 1800s. people did it where they could and many people would just throw the contents of the slop jar out the window.
‘stay classy, korea.’
stay racist, expat.
ps did you know a popular character on ‘south park’ is a piece of poop? stay classy, middle america!
Isn’t South Park satire?
Cactus wrote (#11):
Really? I don’t remember squating and dropping during my firefighting training at boot camp. Do turds have some kind of fire retardant effect?
@pawi wrote:
“‘stay classy, korea.’
stay racist, expat.
ps did you know a popular character on ‘south park’ is a piece of poop? stay classy, middle america!”
To which my response is: I am currently living in Orlando, Florida and I think South Park is incredibly tasteless. Anything else?
Somewhere on YouTube, haven’t been able to find it again, is color footage from the 1930s of Korean street scenes. One bit is of an ajosshi whizzing against the side of a house. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who have living memories of how bad sanitation was in the the not so distant past. Respect to the Koreans for being appreciative of these humble but necessary blessings.
The Sanity Inspector wrote (#16):
I do appreciate what Koreans have done in the realm of restroom facilities because I lived in Korea during a time when most restrooms were nothing but smelly holes in the ground.
I remember leaning over a concrete hole in an Itaewon bar taking a piss when my contact lens popped out and went right down the rabbit hole. Contact lenses were fairly expensive and hard to come by back then, so for a few seconds I thought about trying to retrieve it, but then I realized that even though I could barely stand, I still wasn’t drunk enough to do something like that. Besides, I could still see enough out of the other eye to distinguish between a dog and a cat.
Before leaving the barracks back in those days, I took every precaution to make sure I would not have to do a “number 2″ while in the Ville because I did not have the flexibility to squat in a way that would give me a good, clean shot at one of those Korean holes.
Hamel (#7) asked, “How did I know that I would find HJH here with a shitty joke?”
I would have expected the question to remain rhetorical, but Hamel suffers from logorrhea, so out popped a mouthy answer:
“Answer: it’s alimentary!”
Yuck. There was nothing coprophagic about my joke . . .
Jeffery Hodges
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Sorry to give you a bum rap, HJH.
This is what you can expect in a country where one of the larger companies is called Kolon.
“Somewhere on YouTube, haven’t been able to find it again, is color footage from the 1930s of Korean street scenes. One bit is of an ajosshi whizzing against the side of a house. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who have living memories of how bad sanitation was in the the not so distant past. Respect to the Koreans for being appreciative of these humble but necessary blessings.”
My friend’s neighbour regularly goes outside to piss against a wall instead of using the modern toilet he has in his own house. I saw him doing it on Saturday again in full view of my friend’s balcony.
Ah, nostalgia…..
someone from Florida is talking about what’s classy. that’s rich.
South Park’s raison d’être is to be transgressive. Tastelessness is the objective. I don’t detect any such objective in the Korean toilet-museum set — they’re all so earnest and committed to this absurd enterprise I half-expect them to introduce new museum director Tony Clifton.
Bendrix, not claiming to speak for numberoneOppa, but I think he stated his residence in Florida to show that he is not an “expat”, which pawikigori labeled him.
Korean culture
former expat? either way, it doesn’t matter to me.
Once an expat, always an expat?
I don’t really care if he’s an expat or not. I’m simply talking about a Floridian’s take on what’s classy.
I find it obturd that some people on this blog are shitting hairs over inshitnificant things. Dung you realize the oppooptunity we have here to discuss this very shitious matter?
I want to point out that Bevers is misusing English. Many of the words he uses in comment number 29 aren’t even in the dictionary.
Jeffery Hodges
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Given his predilection for things fecal, I’m hoping that when I get to Suwon next time I see Gerry’s statue demonstrating the Dokdo Dump.
Craptacular.
Cactus wrote:
Korea’s Dokdo claim is already full of crap, so my dumping on it is just Texas burrito-flavored icing on the cake.
Today is a crappy day, so I would like to take this opportunity to say that I regret that discussion on this topic has gone down the toilet.
@33: I wish that that were the case (that Korea has no historical claim on Dokdo) so that I could gloat that Korea took Japanese territory in 1951 as a reparation. Alas, you’ve failed over the years to prove this point, Bevers.
@34: I feel like saying ‘Sulleung! Sulleung!’ to you (and I don’t mean as in farewell, though, I do wish you’d leave).
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