To stink, or not to stink: that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the nose to sniff the slings and arrows of olfactory offenses, or to take arms against the seeping of sewage fumes, and by opposing end them? To die would be better than to live with the stench of it. No more! Hamlet may have been driven mad by poor plumbing, but I would not live so.
In May, I wrote about the plumbing miseries we have suffered in our new apartment in Wangjing (motto: If you lived here, you’d live in Wangjing). Many of you chimed in on the post Moving Woes Part II: Ew, That Smell, and I was surprised by the number of suggestions and comments. Clearly we were not the only family to regularly experience smelly pipes. Two “plumbers” attempted to fix our kitchen sink trouble, and the maintenance guy from our complex did a decent job with caulk, but he admitted that he didn’t know anything about fixing the pipes in the bathroom. And then it happened, Brendan Duncan (may he live forever in happiness) commented on my blog post that he had found a plumbing company that does proper plumbing and I swear I heard the sound of angels singing.
The company website is www.jydst.com, but it is entirely in Chinese, so my wife called the number on the website and we were put in touch with Mr. Wu, our plumber in shining armor (actually, he was much more sensibly dressed). Within an hour of his arrival, Mr. Wu had fitted our master bathroom sink with a U bend and proper pvc piping that was sealed from floor to basin and our bathroom has never smelled better. But while the piping was amiss, he also found that the connection to the basin had not been properly installed either. Mr. Wu (may he live forever in good health) went on to surmise that our toilets are smelly too (I had previously managed to seal off the offending odor with packing tape) and explained that contractors don’t bother to put in the U bends in the plumbing anywhere, even under the toilets, in order to save money and that’s why bathrooms smell in China. Clearly there is no shortage of work for Mr. Wu as he fielded four new appointments on his mobile while he was working beneath our sink. There’s just not that much business for drain cleaning in Louisville, KY where we were for many years, this will take some getting used to, but thankfully Mr. Wu fixed up up nicely.
Neither Mr. Wu, nor the good people at his company, speak English, so if your Chinese is not up to discussing plumbing, enlist some help and make that call; your nose will thank you. Mr. Wu’s number is 133-7178-8937 and the company numbers are 6765 2898, 6303-6450, 6468-7350, and 136-8101-3210. Honestly, Mr. Wu has changed my life for the better.