Thanks tigertiger, I was thinking that might be something along those lines. I can understand why they would want to keep the dust down but the washing part doesnt seem to work as there is usually not enough water to actually wash anything away, its more like sprinkling the dust until it's dry and repeat...

So the tap water comes from the reservoirs and has nothing to do with the watercourses? I thought everything was treated and sent back to the running water system

Have you noticed all those trucks watering the streets? Im not referring to those watering plants on the sides but to those sending a jet of water about 10 meters wide that covers most of the street and sometimes the pavement too that dries up in about 10minutes.
I often see them on the ring roads and I can't help to wonder what's going on. What happened to saving water?
anybody have info on that ?

English is widely spoken because of post war american cultural hegemony. A successful country which exports cultural products such as films will also export its language. Now who's to say that Chinese is not to become the next "international language" (a most silly expression anyway)
China is developing faster than any country in history, it is only a matter of time before it will start exporting cultural stuff instead of industrial products. So yeah if you are talking about the future, I would say Chinese is a good investment. Anyway, so many companies are dealing with China now that skills in Chinese can't be useless on a professional point of view.

Personally I don't think in terms of investment though. Rather in terms of brain investment, the more languages you speak, the more things you can learn, you teach your brain how to expand to grasp ideas that don't exist in your own language (and do it fast as is required to learn the most difficult written language in the world aka Chinese). I learned 3 languages before Chinese, and I learn so much faster than my classmate who's never studied languages before.

I think that this "brain stretching" helps you grasping many other concepts. It's pure learning.

And to people who live in China even for a few years or less, I think it's a matter of respect to learn the language of the country you live in. There is nothing I despise more than people who walk into a Chinese shop or bar and start talking english (or any other foreign language) at the staff without even asking them if they speak it first, as if everyone should speak english...

I'm not saying that everybody should speak Chinese fluently, but everybody should at least try to learn some, be it only to apologize for your bad Chinese. It's only good manners.

As for saying that everybody will speak English in the future (I even heard some people saying that Chinese people will give up characters soon...) these people are fools, or worse. It's a very ethnocentric idea.

Saying that people will end up giving up their particular language for English is not far from saying that "some civilizations are worth more than others" (famous saying of one of the minister in our former xenophobic French government)
I learned English to be able to communicate with people in many countries, true enough many people speak it, and it's a practical thing to learn it. But to start expecting people to speak English in non English speaking countries is a dangerous mistake

Hell, many people in my country expect people abroad to speak French... don't you think it's as ridiculous to expect them to speak English?
A bit of perspective doesn't hurt.

sorry for the rash answer, I heard so many expats who live the perfect neocolonial life in China say that "it's not worth it to learn Chinese" that I can't help getting a bit carried away....

thanks tigertiger and AlexKMG,

I suppose I'll just tell them I want to buy a car to drive around Kunming then... but can you even buy a car on a student visa?

thanks for your input, but I wasn't refering to this kind of question,

actually what they asked my friends was : where are you going to drive to? And the very wrong answer was "we don't know yet, we are going to travel accross China".... after which they didn't let them take the test (my guess would be that the authorities don't want foreigners goings in certain parts of Sichuan for example (the parts were foreigners can't go to by public transports because of "bad roads" when Chinese people can)

anyway I plan on using my license for tourism as well... so I didn't want to mess it up like they did... any advice on that?

Other question HFCAMPO mentions "copies" of the translated license visa etc. Do you know how many copies are required? (since they need 5 pictures, I'm worried not to have enough photocopies)

cheers
Ilan