All news to me. So, there is a bunch of white religious missionary dudes doing charity work with an army of kids around here? Sounds like an accident waiting to happen.

Cost of living aspect: obviously costs are lower here, but so are incomes. However if the income is in USD or GBP or even EUR, a little goes a long way. Consider a nestegg of 200.000 EUR in a bank at say 3% = 6.000 per annum, 50.000 kuai. Enough to live well on here, but won't even cover housing in the west. Do some charity work or study for the sake of a visa, and Bobs your uncle.

live on well? compared to who? Lets be comparing apples with apples.
compred to back home- I want the same kinda life as back home. own a 3 bedroom/2 bath house/apartment 1500 sqft, with parking (garden, no chance for less than 4m), in a comparable quality of neighborhood. Also a medium size family saloon for me and a van for wife and kids. Same spec means euro/jap/or US made. I want kids to go to a school that will prepare them for US universities. mortgage needs a large deposit but interest rates same as back home.

without schools 50krmb per month maybe do it, maybe not, let alone 50k/yr. with schools add 50-100/kid/yr.

Mister H, many of the folks you've seen in the area of the Wicker Basket - probably most - are from North America, live in or near Chunyuanxiaoqu, and are here in connection with teaching (KIA, Protestant Christian education), Protestant Christian charity and/or Protestant Christian evangelistic efforts (properly subdued, for the most part). A lot of the things many of them do (e.g.: prosthetic limbs for folks who got the natural ones blown off near the Vietnamese border from leftover ordinance etc. from the 1979 war) are hard to object to, and are motivated by sincere Christian attitudes and teachings - tho I'm not offering blanket excuses for just any kind of evangelical effort.
Farady, to be fair, I really don't think it's their salaries that brings them here, although the salaries are admittedly a bit higher than what is needed to live in Kunming.

Be it religious fervor or yellow fever, existentialism or whatever, we all are getting something out of it. even if it is only scelrosis of the liver, or manic depression.

China is much safer than most US cities with the exception of having your cell phone or bike stolen. However, people dont getted mugged or assaulted when these things are stolen.

@Dazzer, I'd consider it a big hassle if I had to firstly come up with, and secondly get rid of, that much money :) I honestly live on 50k/year, based on 9 months, and it includes housing, healthcare (basic so far, touch wood), weekend trips, western food several times a week, being drunk and disorderly, some item of new clothing almost weekly..and I swear to god I don't do any tricks with loaves or fishes

@Dazzer - my Chinese ex always said that I was the cheapest person she'd ever met. Maybe she wasn't that crazy after all.

Thanks for all the answers :)

I was kind of guessing they were among gods army, but somehow I thought it wasn't possible or not happening here in China.

Although I`m not very fond of people pushing their beliefs on others and the fact that I`m not a Jesus freak myself, I don`t hate people who believes in what I would refer to as strange stuff. Helping people who got their limbs blown away can`t be too bad.

Blobbles is correct; close to Dianchi, better housing, KIA., AKA they have more cash that most other language teachers going off on some religion blogging tangent.

It is that simple. Also, I get the feeling they don't want to live among the Philistines, who sink beers all day down by Yi Er Yi. If you raise a kid in that district they may end up become a junkie or streetwalker as per the districts reputation. But then again, they would be open to the salvation from the same 'Isis freaks' you bag and find themselves again.

Wicker Basket is a charity, who help people in Yunnan with leprosy and also women in sexual slavery get a job and have a life. I personal do not subscribe to the Cult of St. Paul, but for at least the good deeds they do, they should raise a larger band of people to relieve the suffering and plight of those less fortunate in Yunnan. Who else cares? I mean most greedy, penny pinching Chinese are focused on their next BMW. What about social wealth? China is bankrupt.