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Farewell to Indescribable History
Beijing, the Chinese capital, ended on Saturday, December 23, its one-century-old indescribable history -- the manual collecting and carrying of human waste, which is now in disharmony with Beijing's modern image.
At 8:10 Saturday morning, the last six collectors came to a Hutong in Dongcheng District -- Neiwubu Street, and started to clear lavatory there.
They are: Fan Baofa, Zhao Baocheng, Cai Sanzhong, Sun Shihe, Li Fusheng and Han Changshun, all of whom are Beijing residents.
Wearing blue work clothes, carrying barrels half their size, the six men entered two compounds each occupied by several households.
Each of the compounds have a half-meter-deep pit, which is the only "lavatory" utilized by residents of the two compounds. The "lavatory" can only accept one person, while the dung cart and the municipal conduit are too large for the pit. The manure would have definitely overflowed into the compounds, without the manpower of the collectors.
This kind of "lavatory," called a "drought lavatory," is used by both women and men. Some of the shabby lavatories even have no lighting equipment. Nevertheless, this was the common scene of Beijing's compounds in the past.
The compound lavatories have faded out from the historic platform, with the dramatic changes of municipal infrastructure construction, especially the "lavatory revolution" pushed forward by the Beijing municipal government. Now Beijing residents and tourists have the opportunities to use sanitary and convenient lavatories.
Today, Beijing has only two "drought lavatories."
The 43-year-old Han Changshun put a long ladle into the pit of the No.57 compound, put the waste into the fir barrel six times, and carried the barrel out of the compound, all this series of actions were captured photographers chasing behind.
He came out of the compound and poured the manure into a dung cart.
Han, who succeeded his father's job told Xinhua: "I used to carry 40-50 barrels of waste and have already been used to the coldness of winter and stinking smell of summer."
Han Changshun was reluctant to tell reporter his name first, because "it is not a decent job," said Han.
Historical documents tell people that disaster sufferers from other areas came to Beijing in 1900, to take jobs as night waste collectors. They transported the waste to suburban Beijing to earn money, and since then, Beijing had this kind of trade.
No one could deny that manure bearers have solved many difficulties for thousands of households in Beijing. Even the late Chairman Mao Zedong interviewed these kinds of workers. A statue
of a collector was established near Tian'anmen Square, center of Beijing city.
Li Shufen, a 70-year-old resident of the compound presented a red flower to every collector, who smiled and fiddled with the flowers. After saying farewell to their current job they will shift to collecting during the night using machines.
The fir barrel they once used to bear manure will be sent to a museum. New washroom facilities, called WC, have already been set up a dozen meters away from the compounds. Sun Shihe, looked at the architecture carefully and said, "It is as grand as a building."
Beijing now has over 4,500 WCs. In the past three years, Beijing has renovated all the old WCs. The Dongcheng District has spent over 60 million yuan (about US$7.2 million) doing this.
Zhao Fuli, an official from the Beijing environment protection epartment told Xinhua that every household in Beijing will have their own lavatory in the coming century, and all the WCs in Beijing will reach international standards.
At 9:30 in the morning, Fan Baofa and a resident stuffed the "drought lavatory" with sand.
"I have ended a period of history," smiled Fan.
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