Korean City Proud of its Toilets
By Christopher Torchia, 
Associated Press
The Vancouver Sun
April 25, 2000

SUWON, South Korea (AP) -- The city of Suwon has a lot to offer tourists -- a model folk village, the walls of an ancient fort and, its promoters say, some of the finest public toilets in the world.

In the best bathrooms, framed landscape paintings hang above urinals. A recording of twittering birds echoes off marble floors. In the women's, an optional device called the ''etiquette bell'' plays a flushing sound, veiling more unseemly noises.

Toilets are a place for repose as well as relief, city hall says. Suwon wagers that a $3.8-million campaign to spiff up its toilets will awe an expected deluge of visitors during the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament. The city, 48 kilometres south of the capital, Seoul, is building a 44,000-seat stadium for some games of the World Cup, which will be co-hosted by South Korea and Japan.

But municipal officials seem more thrilled by their 16 new public bathrooms, the nine to be built and the 587 renovated ones.

Recently, Mayor Sim Jae-douk enthused about the project he launched in 1997 after a suggestion that he clean up the city's filthy toilets.

''The toilet is not only for the organic system,'' Sim told a group of journalists. ''The toilet can be a part of culture which we can proudly present, not only to Korea but to the rest of the world.''

The gem of Suwon restrooms lies across the street from a reservoir, a white, winged, pillbox-shaped structure that resembles a futuristic dwelling in a science fiction film.

Outside, three bulbous-eyed sculptures of fireflies cling to a wall above a bed of yellow flowers. Inside, flecks in the marble floor sparkle, supposedly mimicking the insects' nightly flash.

Visitors can sit on a circular bench beneath a potted bougainvillaea in Encounter Plaza, an inner courtyard filled with paintings on sale and a couple of vending machines.

Solar panels power another public bathroom, a blue-glassed building with ramparts and skylights, a moat and fountains. It is modelled after a nearby tower of Suwon fortress, a network of parapets and pavilions that was constructed in the late 18th century by King Chongjo.

The Chosun dynasty king died before he could fulfil a plan to move the capital from Seoul to Suwon, today a provincial capital. Long ago, the city of 920,000 spilled beyond its defensive walls, which have been designated a cultural site by UNESCO.

Perhaps the ''yangban, '' or Korea's ancient noble class, would turn up their noses at Suwon's gaudy, showcase bathrooms. Or they would marvel at the technology: bidets, piped classical music, air fresheners and conditioners, specially equipped toilets for the disabled.

They're certainly among the cleanest toilets in South Korea, where hygiene wasn't a priority in the penurious wake of the 1950-53 Korean War. Standards improved as the nation modernized in the 1970s.

Today, Suwon hosts weekly toilet tours. It is headquarters of the Korea Restroom Culture Association. Other South Korean cities are curious about the quirky campaign.

''The important thing is, who are the pioneers?'' says city official Lee Pil-ung, grandly comparing the project to Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas.

Toilet culture is big in Japan, but the Suwon loos reflect a unique concern in South Korea about how the world views the proud, ambitious country. In 1988, South Koreans responded enthusiastically to a government cleanup campaign before hosting the Olympics.

Some critics complain the funds for Suwon's new toilets would be better spent on transportation and other pressing needs. But the campaign has many fans, including Chi Jung-soo, a 27-year old medical student.

''I like a clean restroom with music, flowers and no stench. Who wouldn't?'' he says.

GRAPHIC: CP Color Photo: Yun Jai-Hyoung, Associated Press 
URINAL WITH A VIEW: A South Korean man gazes out the window in a newly designed public toilet, which offers a good view, music and cleanliness in Suwon, south of Seoul. The city leads a national campaign to spiff up public bathrooms.

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