The Yungang Grottoes are a UNESCO world heritage site in Datong, Shanxi Province. In 2023, a record 3 million visitors descended on the area which boasts 252 caves and over 50,000 Buddha statues in the vast rock-cut temple complex.
But now the grottoes are attracting attention for a different reason – visitor toilets equipped with a digital timer. The unusual development is intended to help the site manage resources amid the surging visitor numbers, a cave employee told local media. But with the site insisting the idea behind the installation is not to “police” the amount of time people are able to spend in the bathrooms, it seems the timers might be there to encourage visitors to self-monitor and avoid the anti-social act of hogging the toilets.
Not setting a time limit
“They aren’t there to control the durations you could use the bathrooms,” the staff member said. “It’s impossible that we would kick someone out midway. And we aren’t setting a time limit such as five or 10 minutes of how long one could use the toilets.”
The toilet timers have reportedly been in situ since May 2024, and have been described by another staff member as a way to assure the “well-being of all guests in case some guests use the toilet for an extended period and an emergency occurs”.
But visitors remain at best non-plussed, at worst critical. One contacted a local paper with a video of the technology, which she said was useful for seeing which toilets are free “so you don’t have to queue outside or knock on a bathroom door.”
Hurry up, there's a toilet timer in China
— SHORT TRIPS (@short_tripps) June 12, 2024
Digital timers show how long you are sitting on the toilet at the Unesco world heritage Yungang Grottoes in Datong city of Shanxi Province in China.#travel #nature #travelgram #wanderlust #FREENBECKYAT9ENT #adventure #travelblogger pic.twitter.com/G8FD9rAMUz
“It felt like I was being monitored”
When a stall is not in use, an LED screen above the door displays the word “empty” in green. If occupied, the screen instead counts the number of minutes and seconds the door has been locked. It is this latter function that is raising eyebrows, with the same tourist adding that the whole thing was “a little bit embarrassing. It felt like I was being monitored.”
Social media site Weibo is also awash with questions and commentary about the digitised loos, with many wondering whether the investment is worth it. “A tourist site isn’t an office – who would spend their time in the toilets? Is it really necessary?” one Weibo user asked, while another raised the very pertinent question: “Why don’t they just spend the money on building more washrooms?”
