Chongqing builds Park Güell rip-off, turns it into a toilet

Only in China could a stunning world-famous architectural monument be shamelessly imitated, only to be given the undignified title of “the coolest toilet”.

That’s exactly what happened in Chongqing, according to photos recently published by Tencent News.

Supposedly built in the style of fairytale castles of medieval Europe, we couldn’t help but think the latrine’s design may have taken cues from Antoni Gaudi’s world-renowned Park Güell in Barcelona.

The real Park Güell is pictured above and below (in case the absence of noxious pollution didn’t give it away).

The word gaudy has never seemed more appropriate, and is a term we often attach to the many blatant rip-offs of foreign icons which routinely appear across China. Just last month, the Great Pyramid of Chuzhou rose from the sands of Anhui to sit alongside a giant knock-off sphinx.

No doubt the great Spanish architect would be spinning in his grave had he any idea his masterpiece was the inspiration for a grandiose Chinese house of defecation.

But what the Chinese counterfeit version lacks in grace and ceremony, it makes up for in splendour, as the facility boasts the capacity to accommodate 2,000 patrons at once (imagine the smell). At the very least, is by no means as tasteless as this excrement-themed Shanxi restaurant and seems a lot more welcoming than this luxury toilet in Anhui built to look like the US Capitol Building.
In other amusing toilet-related news around China, a man was injured at an Anhui airport when the toilet he was using collapsed due to “erroneous posture” (apparently you’re not meant to squat atop the toilet seat?) At least he was spared the misfortunate of the exploding toilet.
By Liam Bourke