I remember when Dong Feng Square was a nice place to walk thru. I remember when Bei Jing Lu was a pleasant walk. It reminds me of a song from a movie with the same title: The way we were.

"Memories, like the corners of my mind. Misty water color memories of the way we were. Could it be that it was so simple then..."

Goodbye guys!

Air isn't perfect here, mostly dust, but a hell of a lot better than downtown. We live on the edge of the lake, on Haigeng DaBa, and so we are usually the first people to get it after Haikou, although the develepoment of Yuxi and Jinning will impact on the lake air as well, but at least there will have been some 'dilute and disperse' of pollutants.
The air here is very clear at the moment and visibility is good, sky is blue.
By the time the air gets to GuangFu Lu area, who knows.

Get a bike, get a cat - and you are all set!

I never lived in a big city therefore Kunming was never "comfortable" to me.
It seems we all share the same notion that it's getting worse in Kunming, I've made plans to move south of Chegjiang area near the lake/ mountain side. Vehicles will allow me to live this way.

Mike

@EveAnnemarie

GoKunming.com is one of those western support services. I assume you used it to find a place to live, or find a job, or find a good meal or band, or get a question answered. Imagine moving to Quijing and trying to get those things done. Possible of course, but would take you weeks or months rather than days.

As to the restaurants and imported food. It all depends how long you've been in China. Long enough, and you begin you factor those things in.

@tigertiger
Can't remember the last time Xishan didn't have a haze around it when viewed from Haigeng. Oh wait, I can...that was couple years ago when I first landed in Kunming and thought what a wonderful view that was. I haven't considered it a nice view for a while now.

@EveAnnemarie - I was in Qujing. About 2 million people 1.5 hours by train from Kunming.

While Qujing is pretty much another fairly soulless Chinese city, at least it was relatively clean, easy to get around, you didn't constantly breathe dust, there weren't kilometre long traffic snarl ups etc etc. Pretty much the same climate as Kunming but a bit colder in the winter apparently. Our friends just bought an apartment there (Chinese) for 3000 kuai per sq m in a compound that has a tennis court, basketball court and soon to be pool in a quiet part of town. While there we ate some amazing food, met cool people, hung out in some of the nice parts of town around the old city wall and generally had a good time. Both myself and my Chinese wife decided that if we come back to China later (planning on heading to NZ at the end of the year), we will probably move to Qujing, not Kunming. Its closer to her hometown and only 1.5 hours on an express train for Kunming, so still close enough to use the foreigner services (like stocking up on cheese from Metro) if need be.

I have only been in Kunming 3 years and in this time it has gone from fairly pleasant to (mostly in the last year or so), dusty, more soulless and with some of the worst driving and traffic I have ever seen! The constant building of apartments, which are mostly empty, combined with the ongoing water crisis (yes the two are connected) are the icing on the cake.

ok tallamerican, let's give credit where credit is due. the place is blessed with better climate than most other cities anywhere in the world.

sorry, but a compound with a basketball court is a weak selling point in a country with 56 million basketball courts (yes, i counted them all!).

Ha haa, a basketball court right outside your door (or tennis court for me) beats basketball court you have to travel to and pay for every time, I say!