Why do Europeans like to go to open-air toilets on the street? Why don't they want to go to a special public toilet?

Anyone who has been to Europe knows that there are few public toilets in Europe and it is difficult to go to the toilet. Free public toilets are rare, even harder to find than giant pandas. Why does rich, civilized and people-oriented Europe so ignore the basic needs of foreign tourists? Why doesn't the government build more public toilets?

Open-air toilet culture in Europe

When it comes to the open-air toilet culture in Europe, we have to start with their religion. Early Catholics thought "water" was a very unlucky thing. They think that water will cause skin pores to expand, so that external viruses will penetrate into the human body with water. Therefore, the ancient French had a natural prejudice against "water". So it's not just the cleaning of the toilet, but also the bathing. French perfume is also famous for its purpose of covering up the odor caused by not taking a bath.

In addition to the influence of religion, because indoor toilets were expensive and inconvenient at that time, most people could only choose to solve them directly on the street. After a long time, going to the toilet in the open air has become a local culture in Europe. /kloc-In the middle of the 0/9th century, the sewage system in France was also very imperfect, and it was impossible to treat the generated excrement in time.

Because there is no perfect drainage system, in order to keep their homes clean, local residents treat their excrement more simply and rudely, and pour it directly into the street from the window. Therefore, the air in most cities smells of urine, and Paris is even dubbed as "shit capital". The plague that ravaged Europe for centuries was also inseparable from the poor sanitary conditions and habits at that time.

The origin of street urinals in Europe

/kloc-In the 0/9th century, European people kept a bad habit of defecating everywhere. This feat once completely enveloped many cities in the smell of excrement, including London, Paris and many other big cities. Finally, in the spring of 1830, the Paris municipal government decided to install the first public urinal on the main road.

This open-air urinal is separated from the surrounding buildings, which is very convenient to build and dismantle, and can also provide a public space for lighting. As a result, in the following decades, open-air toilets developed rapidly in France. At its peak, there were more than 1500 urinals on the streets of Paris, with different shapes, sizes and structures.

Today, the bad habit of defecating everywhere has not disappeared from Europe because of the progress of technology and civilization. French internal data shows a clear figure-40% of French men have the habit of frequent defecation, which is the kind of "frequent" that Google Street View can photograph. Therefore, as long as this bad habit exists, the open-air urinal will still shoulder the heavy responsibility.

Indoor public toilets are expensive and inconvenient.

Rich continental Europe and rich Germany are extremely generous to refugees. They can throw tens of billions of euros, tolerate connivance, and pay high prices to support true and false refugees, but no one can shake the iron law of toilet charges.

Europeans are used to solving "import and export business" in cafes and gas stations. As for the cost, two or three euros for a cup of coffee is a piece of cake for them, which is the minimum consumption. However, for domestic tourists, the charge for public toilets in Europe ranges from 40 euros to 1 euro, which is equivalent to 4-~8 yuan RMB once, and it is not a small number to go to the toilet at least two or three times a day.

Europeans are used to charging for toilets. After all, drinking a cup of coffee for two or three euros is very cheap for them, and the receipt may be used next time they pass by a coffee shop.

For China tourists who earn RMB, tens of Euro cents is a bit high. After all, how much did it cost to go to the toilet last time, 4~8 yuan RMB? What if I go there three times a day? Most people from China travel to Europe. In rich and civilized Europe, toilet civilization is still unacceptable to China people.