Depends where you go.
If I am choosing I never go to a place with inadequate facilities.
Kind of makes me think what are the kitchen and personal hygiene of the staff like.

To add insult to injury, China's public toilet on the street charges one yuan per entry.

I went to a Walmart the other day in Shanghai and happened to take a leak there. I paid special attention to whether Walmart China dared to put free toilet paper and found nope. I made a beeline for the customer care desk to complain about that. The gal treated me like I was from another planet. She said Walmart stopped furnishing toilet cubicles with free paper long time prior only because they found on hourly basis Chinese shoppers stole paper from toilet.

There are sometimes footprints on the toilet seats. Some girls are acrobats.

I think the word "toilet" sums up the whole situation. The word "toilet" is a very uncivilized word. Think of the picture you get in your head when you hear the word "toilet". When the Chinese start using the word restroom or Men's or Lady's room then the civility may just begin and the "Restrooms" will be clean and sanitary for us all to use.

Chinese people stealing toilet paper from public restrooms..... doesn't surprise me in the least.

But what about the soap? What, are they scared some nong is gonna come in with a ziploc bag and milk that soap dispenser for 8 mao worth of soap?
Offering soap in public restrooms would have enormous benefits for the general hygiene of the city.

Anyway, squatter toilets are technically more hygienic and healthy.... except when they're not cleaned and sh*t keeps piling higher, clinging stubbornly to the lining.
But since most Chinese who are at least middle class prefer western toilets (they certainly have them in their homes and offices), I can only conclude that the reason so many places still use squatter toilets is because it's cheap.... and because chinese people will accept it and not care.

here's what i think most people here prefer (and I prefer as well):

My home: sit
Public: squat

After all does the thought of rubbing asses with the 56 other people who sat on the seat in a public toilet that day before you really appeal to you?

Squatting in public toilets is, in theory, more sanitary, but only as long as some idiot has not spat, peed or defecated all over the floor around the hole in the ground.

I've actually found the sit down public toilets generally cleaner - probably because they tend to be located in pubic places like airports and office bldgs, rather than in a smelly, decrepit tile covered shack by the side of the road ...

1. Chinese people do not steal toilet paper. What you've seen is mostly because that those places don't provide "uptime" services. The places should provide more paper on a more frequent basis. Ask yourself if you wipe your a-hole with your thumb.

2. None will steal the soap/foam. Again, simply used out. The bottles/soaps should have been touched by thousands of people carrying numurous bacteria & viruses.

3. Westerners could be better? Sometimes when a foreign girl stands in front of me, I always pose so carefully in case touch any part of the toilet or toilet room. Maybe she has HIV. Sometimes when you despise people, people despise you too.

Up admin. Squat is a better choice for public use.

Dear MK,

Give me a list of numbers, of your office, restaurants, etc. I will dial them in turns and ask them to call you & explain again.

Interesting. I might do it.

toothfairy, it's true.

When certain friends visit my home, I have to hide the tp.

Ok, I will try to be less narrow-minded.

What do you think people use those public tp for? Laying in a public toilet all day, it absorbs all kinds of oders and maybe some strange people even touch the top and bottom of the roll with dirty hands? I do not use tp in public toilets unless it's locked. My OCD.

Most Chinese are not keen on getting petty advantages/profits. Are you serious, tho?

They must feel sympathetic for you. Maybe even curious about how...

I prefer guessing that you never poooo at home. I bet you are a male.

Nah, the lamest thing would be when your spouse/SO doesn't buy your story that you got your STD from a toilet!

Never mind how you think of me. NM or whatever.

I would like to add this:
HIV stays alive in blood for 15 days under room temperature before the blood coagulates. HIV is infectious via sperm/cum, blood, vaginal secretion and milk. First 2 things can be found in men's and women's rooms at times. What's wrong of being cautious?

There was a joke/real story told by our dermatology teacher. An old brave experienced dermatologist got STD from his patient. He smoked after checking a patient. Gonorrhea or syphilis. Easy.

I wonder.

Sure, maybe you can talk of yourself, perhaps even your friends and family. But saying that no Chinese, at all steals, is simply a fallacy.

The 3.3 shopping mall has those dispensers that are now becoming quite popular, where tp is put outside the actual cubicles, and people take it when they are going in. On more than one occasion, I've seen Chinese taking a lot when they are actually leaving.

The same has happened in Singapore airport. I've used the facilities on arrival, and seen several Chinese taking a lot off the roll as they are leaving. So what you say simply can't be true.

As for not wanting to touch anything after a possible HIV patient has used, how uneducated are you? Unless they have had copious amounts of blood loss during use, HIV can't be transmitted through the ways you are detailing.

I really think you need to look things up before you comment on them.

As for the general topic in general, while dirty and generally run down toilet are a problem as Admin said, things are getting better.

As for squats in particular though, Chinese medicine, and now Western research into such matters, has shown that the position general assumed during usage of a squat is better for the necessary movements, and places less stress on the involved areas. Therefore, it is generally understood (as long as all other things are hygienic/clean)to be better for your health to go to the toilet in such a way.