How can the countryside in China regain a attractive image and develop sustainably? This post on Asia Snapshots holds Chengdu's local organic food farm in Anlong as a worthy model after they chat with Gao Qingrong from the Gao Family Farm in Anlong, Sichuan.

Chengdu and Sichuan have both come under fire during the crackdown on soccer corruption. China Sports Daily has a round-up of the latest scandals.

The state-owned newspaper The Global Times has run a particularly open article about the extensive controls on the internet within China and their effect on users and Internet companies. If you're too lazy--er, pressed for time--to read the whole thing, DigiCha posts some choice quotes.

China Beat has a long and wide-ranging article by Ross Terrill, author of the biography Mao, about the book's publication in China, Mao fever, and Mao's changing place in Chinese thought.

The stereotype of the old, baijiu-quaffing, banquet-eating male government official might soon be displaced by the under-qualified but connection-rich and altogether cuter next generation. To Rise From Ashes and ChinaSMACK translate skeptic netizen reactions to the appointment of 20-something-year-olds high up the hierarchy of officials.

There's still no access to YouTube here for most of us, but you can always head over to Youku Buzz, which has a selection of the most-viewed videos to hit their site this week, including the hottest beggar ever to stroll Chinese streets and Chinese cross-talk comedy.

It's official, the Yunnan Honghe Bulls (云南红河奔牛) have been booted from the China Basketball Association (CBA) for the coming season as punishment for failing to pay wages and debts, according to a post on China Sports Review.

Zhang Xiong, the director of Chinese basketball governing body Chinese Basketball Management Center bluntly criticized the club's manner of conducting business.

"Yunnan's poor business operation last season resulted in unpaid wages for players and coaches and a negative impact on the league," Zhang said.

The Bulls joined the CBA in the 2004–2005 season, after winning the championship of the second-tier National Basketball League in 2004. Yunnan Honghe's ejection leaves the CBA at only 17 teams, while leaving the city of Mengzi with a large basketball arena that no longer has a tenant.

American golfer Phil Mickelson announced this weekend that he will build a par-3 course for children with a golf academy in Kunming to promote the sport at the grassroots level, according to an AFP report.

Speaking on the sidelines of the WGC-HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai this weekend, Mickelson, the current number two golfer in the world, said that his goal was to build a base for golf in China among the country's youth.

The sport of golf, which is suffering elsewhere in the world due to the global economic downturn and other factors, has high hopes for China, one of the few places in the world where courses are still being built.

The course and academy in Kunming and the upcoming The World Course in Tianjin, which is inspired by great holes from around the world, will be Mickelson's first golf projects outside of the United States.

"This is a tremendous opportunity to help develop the game in the largest emerging market in the world," he told reporters in Shanghai.

For Kunming, Mickelson's announcement strengthens the city's status as China's golf city. In last year's rankings of China's best golf courses by Golf Digest magazine, three of the top six courses in the country were located in Kunming. Both of the top two courses were located at Spring City Golf & Lake Resort, whose lake course edged out its mountain course for top honors.

Getting more than just children from wealthy families in Kunming to embrace golf will be a challenge, as no public courses exist and green fees at clubs such as Spring City and Lakeview Golf are more than US$100 for one round of golf.

Former Spring City general manager Arthur Yeo recently told ESPN that golf still has a long way to go before it achieves widespread acceptance from Chinese society – and the government.

"It is still an elitist sport, and for over 25 years it has been discouraged," said Yeo. "Right now, the government doesn't know how to respond because they still have to worry about the general public. Their power base is the general public."

Phil Mickelson image: Telegraph

After two years in Jilin province's Changbai mountain, the Vätternrundan recreational bicycle race will be held in Yuxi next month.

Vätternrundan China will start in downtown Yuxi – 90 kilometers south of Kunming – from where it will head toward Fuxian Lake. The race will circle Fuxian Lake and then return to Yuxi for a total of 175.5 kilometers for the longest of the three race categories: road bike (175.5km), road bike (78.8km), mountain bike (78.8km), all of which will be on the same track.

Vätternrundan started in Sweden as a recreational ride around Lake Vättern in 1965 and has since become the largest recreational bicycle race in the world. It is brought to China by sporting event company Nordic Ways.

As it is not a competitive race, there is no official ranking of race finishers according to time. The ride, known in Swedish as a motionslopp "exercise race", does keep official times of all riders. Results are posted in no particular order afterward.

Until recently, the ride around Fuxian Lake was difficult to complete due to poor road surface on the eastern portion of the loop. The completion of the road combined with next month's Vätternrundan are likely to raise Fuxian Lake's profile as an international sporting event destination ideal for cycling races as well as marathons and triathlons.

For more information on registering for the upcoming Vätternrundan China, check out the race's registration page. For other information about the race, contact Ellinor Axner Yin at ellinor.axner[at]nordicways[dot]com or call (010) 5203 6968 extension 121.

Fuxian Lake image: nordicways.com

Yunnan CBA team up for sale
The Honghe Running Bulls, one of the worst teams in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), is up for sale.

The team's owner is unable to pay its players, according to a Reuters report, which is a reflection of the financial issues the CBA is currently facing.

The CBA's 2008-9 season was a lesson in overreach, with the season expanding to 450 games from 200 the year before and league teams combining to lose 115 million yuan (US$16.8 million), putting the league's existence in danger.

CBA director Xin Lancheng singled out foreign players as being one of the league's major problems, saying they were overpaid and hard to manage, adding that rules regarding foreign players would be revised.

Last year the CBA revised rules to allow teams to field two non-Chinese players. The rule change's goal was to raise competition and interest in the CBA, but dominance by foreign players like Bonzi Wells became embarrassing for the league – 19 of last season's top 20 scorers in the CBA were foreigners.

Qiu He calls for transport construction progress report
Kunming Municipal Party Secretary Qiu He held a meeting yesterday with municipal and county officials overseeing the numerous traffic infrastructure projects around the city to assess progress and to ask for understanding, cooperation and support from the city's residents, according to a report in party paper Kunming Daily.

Qiu, the most powerful leader the Kunming municipal government has seen in more than a decade, emphasized the need for research on the progress and quality of the major overhaul of the city's inefficient and overworked traffic infrastructure.

"How much construction has been completed up to this point?" Qiu asked the city officials. "What difficulties are arising during the construction process? How many shifts are there supervising all this work?"

Currently there are several major transportation infrastructure projects underway: the second ring road is being rebuilt with a new elevated road above it, a tunnel through Gangtou mountain will be added to the third ring road, the first lines of the city's subway and elevated rail network are being built, hills have been leveled to make way for the new airport now under construction and major renovation work is being done on Beijing Lu, Xiba Lu, Haigeng Lu and Rixin Lu.

Python goes on chicken-eating rampage
The China Daily is reporting that a python entered a chicken farm in Menghai county on Monday, where it ate 42 chickens before being stopped by the farm's owner. The protected animal was captured alive and was turned over to the local wild animal protection center.

Kunming is known for being one of the top golf cities in China, but it is also soon to make a name for itself as the center of minigolf in China.

From May 8 to 10, the China Open minigolf tournament will be held in Kunming at the Haigeng Olympic training facility, which is also home to China's largest minigolf course, owned and operated by Hello! Minigolf. The company's Haigeng facility is also home of the Chinese national minigolf team.

The 2009 China Open tournament will feature top minigolfers from more than 20 countries including China, the United States, Germany, Thailand, France, Japan, Czech Republic, Vietnam, Turkey, Malaysia, Ireland, Singapore and more.

Competition will take place on May 9 and 10 on Hello! Haigeng's fun course and challenge course, with a total of 25,000 yuan in cash prizes up for grabs.

"We are very excited to be hosting the tournament here in Kunming," Mike Medcalf of Hello! Minigolf told GoKunming.

"Not only is Hello! Haigeng Minigolf the first place in China to really bring the complete experience of minigolf to the public, but also the venue of the first Minigolf China Open Tournament in history. The open is both international and local, and we are honored to be hosting."

The tournament will feature professional and amateur competitions, both of which will be divided into three age groups: 6 to 13 years, 13 to 59 years and 60 and older. Amateur competitors will be charged a 188 yuan entrance fee.

The registration deadline for the 2009 China Open is this Saturday, April 25. All interested parties can contact Marissa Yang at 15987153350 or contact Hello! Minigolf directly via their contact form.

Kunming is a starting point for countless world-class cycling trip options, both in the immediate area and around mountainous Yunnan province. If one resident of the city has his way, it may also soon be the birthplace of the world's first web community-owned professional cycling team.

One and a half years ago Marc Frencken left his hometown of Weert, the Netherlands to come study Chinese in Kunming. During his free time, Frencken has been exploring Yunnan on his bicycle. In addition to being an avid cyclist, Frencken has also long had a voracious appetite for televised cycling events such as the Tour de France.

Earlier this year Frencken launched his current project – CrowdRiders – a drive aimed at organizing 40,000 cycling fans around the world to serve as owners and managers of what – if successful – will be the world's first crowd-sourced professional cycling team.

Frencken said he was inspired by the success of the website myfootballclub.co.uk in organizing more than 32,000 football fans from 80 countries to contribute at least 35 pounds sterling toward the purchase of Ebbsfleet United football club for 600,000 pounds in February 2008. Three months after being bought by its 32,000 owners, the club won the FA Trophy at Wembley Stadium, the greatest achievement in the club's 120-year history.

"Cycling is a much more achievable crowd-sourced sport," Frencken told GoKunming, "A cycling team's annual budget is much less than that of a football team."

The current mission of the CrowdRiders project is to collect the names and email addresses of cycling fans around the world who would be willing to pay a 55 euro yearly membership fee once 40,000 people have committed to the project.

The resulting 2.2 million euros would make up more than half of the 4 million euro budget Frencken envisions for the CrowdRiders professional cycling team, making the 'crowd' the majority shareholder in the team and giving it the power to vote on all the team's major decisions, such as which cyclists it will sponsor, which races it will participate in, who the team's sports director will be – even the team's jersey design.

The remaining 1.8 million euros are to come from shirt, equipment and website sponsors, who Frencken feels confident CrowdRiders will be able to attract once reaching critical mass.

"I'm convinced that once we have an organized group of 40,000 cycling fans from around the world it will be easy to attract sponsors," Frencken said, "Ideally the sponsors will be involved in open-source or crowd-sourced business models."

At present, CrowdRiders has collected 142 'aspiring CrowdRiders' – prospective members who tentatively agree to pay membership dues once the target of 40,000 members has been achieved. As CrowdRider number one, Frencken has already set an ambitious target for the CrowdRider team – to enter one of the three wild card slots in the Tour de France.

CrowdRiders currently has members in China, the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Brazil, Norway, Australia, Canada, Spain and several other countries, Frencken said, but the project's main development challenge is getting its website translated into several key languages.

At this point, the site is only in English and Dutch, but Italian, French and Spanish versions will be needed to attract cycling fans from the traditional cycling powerhouse countries, Frencken said. In addition to these languages, Chinese is also a priority language, as China is not only where the CrowdRiders concept was born, but it is also a large internet-savvy country that has only recently taken interest in professional cycling, he said.

GoKunming contributor Guo Duomi set off during the Chinese New Year holiday with Lady Guo to cycle some of the roads less travelled in central and southern Yunnan. Here he shares with us details of his journey from Yuxi to Jinghong by bike.

Day 1 – Yuxi to Tonghai (51km)
The first leg of the journey was the two hour bus to Yuxi (玉溪) which enables you to miss a tough day's ride out of Kunming. When the Dianchi Lake cycle path is completed this may be worth reconsidering, as would cycling to Chengjiang (澄江) and then taking the quieter roads along the west of Fuxian Lake (抚仙湖) to Jiangchuan (江川).

The first few kilometres take you out of Yuxi's industrial west on a crowded and dusty road. At the top of a hill you turn off the main road to enjoy a quiet stretch into the hamlet of Yanhe (研和镇). From here you join the highway for a climb of around 10km offering reasonable views of Yuxi's surrounds. After this there is a short descent followed by a long and straight roll into Tonghai (通海).

Tonghai is a friendly town whose attractions include the expansive Qilu Lake (杞麓湖), at which a passing groom getting his wedding shots taken may wish to take a spin on your bicycle.

Day 2 – Tonghai to Jianshui (80km)
A short climb out of Tonghai sees you pass the entrance of the motorway to Jianshui (建水) and then take on a massive 25km descent into Gaozhai (高寨). The road is reasonable quality but the combination of heavy fog and a wet road meant that is was pretty cold and uncomfortable going on a January morning.

The road forks at Gaozhai with Jianshui 50km away whilst Shiping (石屏), which looks about the same distance on a map, is 90km away. The road to Jianshui is good quality and undulates through a series of villages and towns, snaking past the expressway from Tonghai and the railway under construction, culminating in a reasonable climb and descent into town.

Jianshui bristles with historic sights and has large and vibrant old town. It offers not just warm people but ridiculously warm weather in the depths of winter – making a nice departure from the frosty temperatures that the 'spring city' of Kunming proffers during a cold snap.

Days 3 and 4 – Jianshui to Shiping and back (120km return)
As you leave Jianshui you pass what seems to be every headstone manufacturer in Yunnan. After about 5km you reach Twin Dragon Bridge (双龙桥), an impressive 17 span Qing Dynasty bridge still in regular use by the locals.

A further 10km or so on you will find yourself at the entrance to the village of Tuanshan (团山), site of the Zhang family Gardens. This complex was created by a prosperous merchant family over many centuries and, whilst now a tourist site with a 20 yuan entry fee, it remains a living community home to a population 80 percent of which are surnamed Zhang.

Spending the extra 10 yuan on a guide is well worth it (even if you don't speak much Chinese) as you will be taken into many otherwise inaccessible areas of the gardens and you'll have the footbound old woman pointed out to you - though photographs are a no-no.

Moving on from Tuanshan you shadow the expressway on poor roads until the village of Baxin (坝心站). From here you divert to the southern shore of Yilong Lake (异龙湖), passing by racks of tofu skin drying in the sun until you double back into Shiping. Shiping tofu is famous as the best in Yunnan and, just like the Guinness in Dublin, it certainly seems to taste better when sampled at the source.

Day 5 – Jianshui to Yuanyang (79km)

Departing Jianshui to the south you are faced with 35 kilometres of almost constant climbing on decent quality roads. The pass above the town of Goujie (狗街) marks the beginning 40km of descending roads which are poor but offer some awesome scenery. Steep slopes near and far provide your first view of terraced rice fields and stunning views of the dammed Yuan River (沅江) shortly follow.

The descent takes you level with the reservoir along a few kilometres of horrible dirt road before arriving at the positively subtropical town of Yuanyang (元阳). Yuanyang is also known as Nansha (南沙), the town of Xinjie (新街) which is sometimes also called Yuanyang was our target destination and lies a further 30km of steady climbing south. This could make a challenging conclusion to your day's riding or you could fork over 10 yuan and pop your bicycle on the roof of the local bus to be chauffeured up in (relative) style.

Day 6 – Yuanyang (Xinjie) rice terraces (40km)
In Xinjie you have the option of hiring a vehicle for the day to take you around - a necessity if you want to see the terraces at sunrise and/or sunset and you don't have decent lights. You do risk the chance of seeing nothing due to fog however. Heading out at your own leisure on the bike allows you to go when visibility has improved. About 10km of climbing out of town will take you to the turnoff for the spectacular Bada (八大) and Duoyishu (多依树) terraces which are a further 8 and 15 kilometres away respectively on a gently undulating poor quality dirt road.

Continuing back along the main road a further 5 kilometres will take you to the pass with a further 8 kilometres down to the Tiger Mouth terraces. From here you can keep on heading south to Lüchun (绿春) and through the rolling hills all the way to Jinghong (景洪). Reports are that the scenery in this region is pleasant but a little repetitive.

Days 6 and 7 –Xinjie to Jinghong
Given time constraints we rolled down through the fog into Yuanyang and bussed it to Jinghong overnight via Jianshui. A trip to the hot springs just south of town proved a relaxing day trip however the 'back streets' route to the springs offered by the map in Mei Mei Café is quite difficult to follow.

Days 8 and 9 – Jinghong to Banna Wild Elephant Valley and back (110km return)

Crossing the Mekong – here known as the Lancang River (澜沧江) you follow the main road past the tollbooth until the roundabout. Taking the hard left will lead you to the road from which the number three road to Mengyang (勐养镇) branches off on your right. Requiring a lengthy climb past rubber and fruit plantations on a deteriorating surface followed by a long descent into the back of Mengyang means this road is not recommended.

From Mengyang continuing along the secondary road which shadows the expressway requires a short climb of around 5km followed by a pleasant descent to the Elephant Valley entrance. The dilapidated tree houses which are a favourite with western tourists are a long walk into the reserve. Promotional material suggests that your best chance of seeing a wild elephant is in the early morning. At around 9pm however the darkness was pierced by an oddly familiar elephant sound and we were treated to the spectacle of a five strong herd taking a drink and having a mess about in the stream below.

Arrival of the megaphone led tour groups at 9:00am the next morning made one understand why the elephants preferred to make a nocturnal visit.

The return voyage sees you retrace your steps to Mengyang and then shadow the expressway until the turnoff for Menglun (勐仑, a lazy 110km away). Don't be put off by the fact that the signs don't show Jinghong as a destination – after about 5km in you will reach a turn off for the secondary road to Jinghong which descends all the way back to the Mekong/Lancang.