stuff: travel fears

Hello. Well I am preparing for the big trip to China. I am a little worried about it. It is such a long time to be away from my house. I dont normally go anywhere for that long. I dont think I have ever really been gone longer than a week or so from any place I have lived. I have never been gone longer than that from my dogs. Then there is the fact that I haven't ever left North America. Id say this is pretty sad and a damn good thing to be putting behind me, but still a little fearful of the unknown. 

I have a fear of Chinese restrooms. I have read some Internet horror stories about some of these being simply a ditch dug into the ground and people must squat around it, no privacy at all a communal shitting ditch. Then in one thing I read, I hope it is not true, please be untrue, that in really rural areas (about 1/2 of my trip will be spent in such areas mind you) there can be a whole in the floor where you are to go to the bathroom and below it are pigs! Oh my god, that sounds horrid. What if they reach in and bite you on the ass???? I do realize they are not all going to be this bad. We are going to have western type toilets in the hotel rooms. I think I will take some bathroom documentation while traveling since it has become sort of a small obsession for me. So you can look  forward to that in the future. I am sure your very excited!!!!

If you have been to China and had a different experience, a more positive bathroom experience or never once saw anything I have described above please let me know so I will be less fearful!!!!

Our first stop is Beijing. We will be there for 5 days. We will be visiting the Printmaking dept at Centre Academy of Fine Art, going to 798 galleries area, the Palace and Beijing Museums, Tsinghua University and the Soug Zhuan artist village.