Creativity Stirs the Unexpected in Toilets!

Toilets take a quiet and subtle place in decorating schemes, wouldn't you agree? Until recently, "real" toilets, as we picture them, were scarce in Chongqing, China. So what were toilets like there? I'd say like small porcelin tubs level with the ground. More on that later from personal experience... but first...

Lo and behold, creative business leaders in China changed the face of their public toilets! Note the regal Egyptian entry way

Chongqing leaders made waves by creating a state of the art four-story public bathroom, holding 1,000 toilets. Leaders target the Guiness World Book of Records with this amazing facility...

a recently opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 30,000 square feet.

But, interestingly, sheer numbers're only part of the story. Officials evidently hoped to distinguish themselves in "loo" design. Catch this "Lulu of a Loo" video on CNN... It's worth viewing for the fun of seeing creativitly designed toilets!

Some urinals are uniquely shaped, including ones inside open crocodile mouths and several topped by the bust of a woman resembling the Virgin Mary.

Ellen and I worked in Chongqing for six weeks so toilets became more than funny during the time we worked there. Surprisingly, women's stalls had no doors. Though the example on the left shows what we faced, there were no shoe marks in the ones we used, so I wasn't sure which way it was proper to face. A real dilemma to say the least with many passersby...

The capacity to see a problem and find creative solutions after years of old methods frequently faces all of us. So we change in ways currently unimaginable to most. Creativity stirs the unexpected in the old noodle when we put it to work! People willing to quit taking many things for granted lead the way... Thoughts...