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The New York Times published an article about toilet paper theft and the use of technology to prevent it:
The toilet paper thieves of the Temple of Heaven Park were an elusive bunch.
They looked like most park visitors, practicing tai chi, dancing in the courtyards and stopping to take in the scent of ancient cypress and juniper trees. But hidden in their oversize shopping bags and backpacks was a secret: sheet upon sheet of crumpled toilet paper, plucked surreptitiously from public restrooms.
Now the authorities in Beijing are fighting back, going so far as to install high-tech toilet paper dispensers equipped with facial recognition software in several restrooms.
Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck. The machine will not dispense a second roll to the same person for nine minutes.
This seems to be too funny to be real, but the article has an animated GIF that demonstrates this device's operation.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anne Nonymous on Tuesday March 21 2017, @05:29PM (1 child)
In my experience, the vast majority of public toilets in the developing world are BYOTP.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday March 21 2017, @06:02PM
Had to go all the way to the bottom to get some truth :)
I've been to over 20 different cities in China, just as many places to stay and eat too. Along with some nice tourist spots. My orientation with the people I went along with explained the importance of bringing your own tissues with you, your own napkins with you, and your own TP with you.
Almost no restaurants had napkins out. It was expected that customers would bring their own. Only high end establishments gave them out, and it wasn't abnormal for people to pick them up. I think that was even Hong Kong and not the mainland. No napkin dispensers like there are ubiquitously in Western establishments are found throughout China, or at least the China I experienced.
In the bathrooms there was always a sink, and some soap in many cases, but you brought your own napkins to wipe your hands with, and you brought your own TP. One of the "bathrooms" I experienced in a rural factory was no more than 1 foot by 5 foot rectangular holes in concrete to a huge retaining area below. No stalls, no rails, nothing to keep a small person from falling in below. There was a sink with running water along with it, but nothing else.
I can absolutely imagine Chinese people going to a park and seeing the TP dispensers and going apeshit on them. It's reasonable to me that it would be interpreted as an amenity included in the park price and they can take what they want. At a minimum, it would be an oddity to them, and no social expectations are in place yet.
Banditry is just the interpretation of non-Chinese journalists after experiencing it. Spend a few weeks throughout China and one might understand the real deal with TP.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.