Beijing's Newest Public Bathroom is Made Out of Flowers

原创 Charles L. theBeijinger

A strong facade has never been more delicately handled than with Beijing's newest public restroom that features an exterior completely covered in flowers and greenery.

Located in the Caoqiao neighborhood of Fengtai District, the capital's newest porcelain throne room has been attracting attention for looking less like a restroom and more like a garden-happy Piet Mondrian.

What seems to be a complicated set-up at first glance is actually as simple as counting from one to two.

As explained by design team manager Lin Qiaolin, the flowers are mounted on the wall through the use of a metal lattice that holds a thin layer of dirt from which the plants can take root in. And, having incorporated a built-in watering system and the ability to swap out entire floral blocks at a single time, Lin described the restroom's floral requirements as being "simple" to handle.

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Even with the plant's gravity-defying two-dimensional floral arrangement explained, the petal-fortified facility has found a particular niche with the public that already knows it as the "Rubik's Cube bathroom," so-named after the popular modern Chinese hobby and '80s fad.

Not content just to serve as an engineering marvel, the olfactory outhouse has also been praised for the way it complements the existing environment. Local village director Liu Baojie said the public restroom was built "in coordination with the surrounding neighborhood."

But for all its outstanding qualities, Chinese media reports refrain from moving past the flowers and getting into the weeds, neglecting to include any description of the interior of the public restroom.

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Chinese public restrooms have gained such a poor reputation among tourists that the country vowed to undergo a "toilet revolution" that would substantially improve facilities across the country.

For Beijing, this meant the 2015 arrival of the "Fifth Space," a public restroom re-imagined with flat-screen televisions, free Wi-Fi, and electric charging posts. And, as seen last year, this also meant equipping public bathrooms with the latest "facial recognition technology" in order to properly provide bathroom goers at Tiantan Park their proper allotment of toilet paper.

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It may not be exactly like a camping trip out to the woods, but reluctant wallflowers can now get out and into the floral water closet for themselves. The flower-covered public restroom is located 200 meters northeast of Exit B of Caoqiao Station on line 10.

Images: Weibo (via people.com.cn), Miaopai.com