Showering in a Foreign Country

October 2, 2010  •  Beijing, China, Travel

If there is one universal challenge I have found while traveling, it’s how to make the showers work. We take for granted the comfort of knowing how to operate our home showers, and after a long trip like mine to China and crossing 14 time zones and the international date line, the shower can be particularly frustrating.Take this as an example. This rod thing is impossible to hold and shower at the same time, floods the room when pointed out, and directs water in a straight line – what is that even useful for?Had I looked up and seen this overhead shower I might have figured out there was an alternative, but even when our friends at dinner explained it (having suffered the same confusion and frustration in our mutual exhaustion), it wasn’t obvious how to turn it on.Finally, we noticed this little knob behind the faucet controls that when pulled out switches it to above. We still flooded the room (my husband wonders why these hotels don’t collapse from water damage) but at least we are clean and refreshed this morning. Off to see the Olympic village and to shop!

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