Schedules US State Dept. In the best bathrooms, framed landscape paintings hang above urinals. A recording of twittering birds echoes off marble floors.
Toilets are a place for repose as well as relief, city hall says.
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 can be a part of culture which we can proudly present, not only to Korea but to the rest of the world. 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.