I'm going to be needing a new laptop soon and was wondering if Kunming had a 电脑城 ("computer city") like many larger Chinese cities do. If not, are there places you would recommend from experience? It needs to be a place where they can help me with setup issues after the sale. I'll probably be buying Lenovo, if that matters. Thanks in advance.

Check out the Lenovo website to find their approved dealer here, most likely they will be in the 121 street area.

Then when you are in the 121 area (many "Computer Cities" there) visit a few Lenovo shops to get a feeling for prices offered,,but in the end its better to buy from an approved dealer.

Kunming is same as other big cities in the country, having big computer or IT Products Cities. In Kunming, traditionally we have an area named 园西路 Yuan Xi Lu, which covers these areas like Yi Er Yi Da Jie (一二一大街), Yuan Xi Lu (园西路), Yuan Tong Bei Lu (圆通北路) and Gu Lou Lu (鼓楼路). Regarding to the big shopping mall for IT Products, Bai Teng Digital City (佰腾数码广场)is highly recommended because it's huge and you will have lots of choices. For the brand of Lenovo, there are several leading distributors like Yunnan Ju Xing Dian Nao 云南巨星电脑, Yunnan Ke Xu Dian Nao 云南科旭电脑 and Yunnan Di Si Ruan Jian 云南迪思软件. You will find several stores of 云南巨星电脑 in Bai Teng Digital City 佰腾数码广场 or the whole Yuan Xi Lu 园西路 area. There headquarter and warehouse is on No. 70, Gu Lou Lu, 鼓楼路70号。But I think you can buy the laptop from any of there brand store will be ok. Yunnan Di Si Ruan Jian 云南迪思软件 is located in 金太阳电脑城 near Xiao Cai Yuan 小菜园。Normally you can get cheaper price there because their marketing channel or strategy is a little different as others, but the company is trustworthy as well. For post- sale service, nearly all the famous brand of IT Companies are very good, including HP, Sony, Lenovo, Acer and others. They will provide very good service for you whenever you have problem within the warrantee time even if you don't keep the invoice. When you buy the laptop, the sales person will tell you the address and exact contact for post-sale service. So actually it's doesn't matter where you buy the products if you buy it in a legal way, just the price matters a little bit because different distributors may have different prices slightly. It would be better if you have some local friend to help you buy this. Hope it will be helpful for you.

Thank you very much @icholiday. Appreciate the thorough and detailed response. And a tip of the hat to Yuantongsi as well. That information is a big help. 我非常感谢你们！

I will go to 一二一大解 tomorrow and have a look. 佰腾数码广场 sounds like an excellent place to start.

there are some good places there but the prices often seem to be lower for locals. as an example, i walked around there a couple of months ago checking out some netbooks. i got asked for between ~Y2400 and Y2600 at a number of different places (and they wouldn't bargain). when a local friend went to ask about an identical product just minutes later it was between Y2200 and Y2100 which was pretty quickly dropped to Y2000. so... might be worth finding the one you want and asking a local friend to buy it!

I'm sure what you say about pricing is true. But when I go shopping I will also be scouting for a technically bright computer person who might be able to help me with software installation and such later for a modest fee.

My computers have heretofore all had English language operating systems and I'm sure I will have questions about how to do the initial setup in Chinese. Not sure if I can just select English as the default language and and all the questions will go away. If it all works out, I would be extremely glad to locate a local "computer guru" for other simple tasks down the road.

So what I'm really shopping for are both a computer and a computer savvy Chinese friend. None of my current Chinese friends are very technical.

Are there authorized dealers where you can ask them to build customized laptops for you?

I didn't see any, but it may have been because I wasn't specifically looking for such a service. I did see lots of places which could modify your laptop or even build a desktop from scratch.

I wound up buying a Thinkpad X220 at 佰腾数码 (Bai Teng Shu Ma) on 一二一大解 (Yi Er Yi Street)。A local friend helped me shop.

Beware of what appear to be authorized dealers. There are many fake dealers shops in China. My wife almost bought a fake Thinkpad from a fake dealers a while back. And there is the famous fake Apple store in Kunming.

I know this post does not answer your question, sorry. But if you are new to China you might need the 'heads up'.