Freegate has had problems well before now. When I first used it in 2010 it was already fairly unreliable. Luckily I have a VPN (which is free in my case as it's provided by a company I used to be associated with) that does the job reliably everytime.
@filipd, thanks for that info. Seems like the clerk I dealt with was correct then. I have plenty of credit cards but they are all international ones.
Any ideas about other car rental firms in Kunming, particularly ones that accept international credit cards and/or cash, not mentioned on this thread so far?
Does the remaining visa validity really matter? I thought that having a Chinese driver's license is what counts. Sounds a bit strange to me, but anyway, you have direct experience renting from them. When I went to Zuche near the airport back in late 2010, they didn't care about my visa, but the main issue was the deposit. Apparently they don't accept international credit cards. On the other hand, another poster on GoKM mentioned that they do as he had successfully used his visa card with them; in fact it was probably the particular clerk that I dealt with that didn't know the rules.
For a better deal and less paperwork, how about renting from John Xie's car rental? He has a couple of vehicles available and accepts cash. He advertises here on GoKunming. He normally charges 250 Yuan a day for his sedan. Only 140 for the minivan. There is also a refundable deposit payable at the time you pick up the car and refundable immediately upon return.
@dazzer, you obviously aren't a linguist and I don't understand what you are trying to say - I think I was being very clear though. Then again, I'm not a linguist either (I'm an engineer with a passion for languages though!) I am just pointing out what every Chinese language student starts to realize: the number of different sounds in Chinese is very limited. A syllable is a sound. I apologize for using the word "words" to describe what is actually a syllable in an earlier post.
Chinese has 2000 syllables with which to create every possible word. Many words consist of single syllables, others are composed of two syllables; a few words have 3 or more syllables but in general not many. Whereas in English many complicated medical, engineering and scientific terms have been borrowed from other languages including Latin and German, in Chinese, you'll find that unfamiliar words are composed of familiar syllables (or sounds). The characters for these words could however be very complex or different to anything you've ever seen.
That's why it's so important to be able to read Chinese characters. I can't stress this enough. There aren't enough syllables in Chinese to be able to make sense to a learner that doesn't have any knowledge of the written language. It's also another reason why Chinese can never use a phonetic writing system: every word would look the same even after adding tone markers. There are too many homonyms.
Absolute insanity.
Anyway, as I have previously mentioned on another thread, and as is evident in the news all over the world, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and many other countries around the world will become even greater recipients of Japanese investment as a result of these crazy incidents in China.
The news channels in Thailand are currently showing reports featuring economists and businessmen rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of increased Japanese investment inside the country. Already Thailand is "Japan's manufacturing hinterland" with most Japanese pickup trucks built in Thailand these days, both for domestic consumption and export. Japanese electronics and supporting industries for cars, electronics and hard disk manufacturing are all big industries in Thailand, where a pro-Japanese and pro-foreign investment business environment are in force. Vietnam is also an emerging destination for Japanese investment thanks to a large, skilled laborforce and low wages.
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What do you mean by "foreigners"? Everyone who is a non-citizen of Myanmar and wants to travel there is a foreigner. I doubt Burmese citizens require visas to return to their homeland.
Horrible tasteless, thick-crusted "cardboard" like pizzas that are a far cry from what they should be like. Way overpriced too. Wine may be good, but why bother when the nearby Prague Cafe makes much better pizza at a more reasonable price?
Great Mexican food and ice cream, excellent Raspberry smoothies and an overall good atmosphere. Can't do much about the low ceilings on the second floor, but the early closing time could be adjusted, after all, the nearby French Cafe closes at 1am.
Riding into Kunming's future
发布者There's a flight from Kunming to Beirut? Wow...
Changshui Airport set to debut
发布者Some airlines, particularly international ones like THAI have not updated their systems to reflect the new airport. At the beginning, starting tomorrow, I'm sure there will be some passengers that won't know about the change and will thus go to the wrong airport and miss their flights.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
发布者Yeah the Lijiang line is currently under construction, while the Ruili line is supposed to form part of a proposed Kunming-Myanmar rail link - it will probably also be constructed at some stage (as reported by GoKM last year) but I suspect it will take a little while.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
发布者All of this is quite amazing, but even in China not everything goes to plan. Originally the proposed high speed railway from Kunming to Vientiane, Laos via Jinghong and Boten was supposed to be completed by 2015, but a number of issues will likely push back that project for another 10 or more years, though I do believe that it will eventually be built. Also, since the idea is to link south-western China with the south-east Asian coast, Thai and eventually Malaysian and Singaporean co-operation is vital to building this link in the first place; building a line only as far as Vientiane would likely turn out to be a white elephant project since the objective is to make most income from moving goods between SE Asia and SW China quickly via train rather than passengers and that requires linking SW China to a coastline - something which Laos doesn't have.
Regarding the Hekou line, they've been proposing that one for years now since trains stopped running between Kunming and Hekou in 2002. Finally this article mentions a new high-speed line is under construction, but this will be of little use unless the Vietnamese also build a complementary high-speed line on their side (sure, they already have an existing railway line running from Lao Cai via Hanoi down to Saigon, but it's rather slow). Also, the Vietnamese government recently turned down a proposal for converting their existing line into a high-speed line, citing the high cost and the low passenger volumes that would utilize the line.
Changshui Airport set to debut
发布者Wow, it's finally upon us. The new airport will finally open at the end of this month! Only thing is, I'd avoid non-essential travel in and out of this airport for the first couple of weeks since it will probably be more chaotic than usual and things may not go as planned (for example baggage claim may be unusually slow).
I like the statement "For travelers without cars, taxis are always an option." well of course they are. For starters, most people in Kunming still don't own a car despite all the cars on the roads these days. Secondly, even if you do have a car, who would drive to the airport in order to catch a flight and then park their car for the duration of their overseas or interprovincial stay there? I don't think long-term parking is well known in China so even a week's worth of parking could become very expensive and possibly more expensive than even in some western countries.
I am looking forward to the proposed direct Europe flights. Anyone have any idea about when these flights might begin and who which carriers will offer service (presumably Chinese carriers I would imagine)?