Unless you feel like splashing out 155.000 kuai for your two kids for the first year at KIA your better choice would probably be to find a regular quality Chinese non-Christian school. 155.000 kuai can buy you an AWFUL lot of private tutoring and language training considering that you can hire a Chinese person with qualifications full time 60 hours a week for 2000 a month. Throw them both into a regular Chinese school and they'll probably be close to fluent after a year.
I went to Mangshi for the Water Splashing Festival and it was indeed very funny as well as interesting. I went to Xishuangbanna a few months ago so this time I opted to see the festival in Western Yunnan instead.
Mangshi during the festival had only a bit of the Jinghong tourist feel I don't particularly like. I'd avoid Jinghong like the plague but I might go back to Mangshi some day. The city is nice and spacy and has the distinct South East Asia feel that the Dai people brings to certain Yunnan cities.
The festival as some of you know ofcourse takes place in a big central square and my guesstimate is that there were 15-20.000 people dancing and throwing water around. It was great fun although we all quickly ran low on accesible water. In the whole city you can not go out without being completely soaked between 12 am and 6 so cell phones and cameras had to be left in the hotel. The fire dancing in the evening was also a barrel of fun,, especially for the locals since I apparantly was the only laowai there who attempted to move around in something that was meant to be dance.
Mangshi without the Water Splashing Festival might not be worth the trip for the city alone though.
I went there on Tomb sweeping day and it was a pleasent surprise. I don't think many of the expats have been there and it's a shame really. The ticket price of 100 kuai is a bit steep,, especially since people born in Yunnan can get in for 30 but you can get legit tickets from the private vendors just outside the entrance for 80 kuai if you feel like haggling. Bus 69 goes there and it is only a 15 min ride from Ren Min Zhong Lu. Line 71 also.
The area is pretty huge and you can easily spend a full day there. The best part was the province gardens area the worst was this touristy feeling you usually don't get in Kunming. It felt like being back in Beijing when someone wanted 120 kuai for a pair of crappy sunglasses. They have a circus performance 2 or 3 times a day and it was ok but apart from that I wouldn't recommend bringing your kids there. After the novelty of the place have worn off they'll be bored to bits.
Nice area for a day out with the girlfriend since Kunming definately is lacking in the romantic-places-to-go department.
"Kunming has been awarded the honour of hosting the prologue for the Tour de France 2010 in a close contest with Barcelona in Spain and Berlin. Mayor of Kunming Yang Rui was extremely happy yesterday when the announcement was made. "We have been fighting hard to get Tour de France to Kunming for some time now and with the financial backing of the HongHe group we finally achieved our goal. This will help to promote Kunming globally as the financial and logistical hub of Southwestern China".
The prologue which will be held on the 21st of Juli will start in Anning, go along the outskirts of Kunming with a small detour to Dian lake before the teams will turn on to Ren Min Lu and finish in Kundu Nightmarket outside of Sohu.
Due to his long commitment to cycling Friedhelm Goering of The Hump bar was in the organizing commitee of the Kunming Tour de France 2010 group. "I am over ze moon today" the jolly German said in a comment to our reporter. "Now we will do our best to organize a team that can take part in ze 2010 race. Arun and I have already started preparations and we intend to recruit at least 7 more riders amongst our regulars and business associates."
Maybe I am missing something obvious but I can't seem to find Tengchong airport on any flight search engine. Baoshan seems reasonably close but it would still take a long busride to get from there to Tengchong. Is the new airport there open yet and if so, does anyone know which airlines fly to there from Kunming? I read somewhere that China Eastern is operating on that route but at their website there is no mentioning of Tengchong at all.
The entrance fees are and will be a concern for national tourists though I don't really know if Yunnan's direct competitors are charging similar sky rocketing ticket prices or not. Furthermore Kunming is going to get passed by as a stopover for tourists now that nearly every area worth visiting in Yunnan has an airport and frankly I can't blame tourists for not including Kunming in their plans.
This place might still be a decent place to live and work but honestly, what is there to see around here for a tourist? The Stone Forest it the only one think I can think about but there are karst formations all over Southern China, many of which are nicer and cheaper to visit than the one near Kunming. In 5 years Chinese tourists will fly into Shangri-La, take a bus or train to Lijiang, fly from there to Tengchong, then they'll fly to Jinhong (or whatever Sipsangpanna's main city is called) and from there they'll go back home. Kunming's tourist industry is pretty much fxcked and the hiked up fees all over Yunnan will ensure that no one ever comes back to visit.
Furthermore I think we all have a feeling that not only do we get screwed over when we want to visit the scenic spots but also that the money we have to cough up end up in the wrong pockets, or at least will be spent on anything else than preserving the natural beauty of the blah blah blah that every area claim.
Yet another hypocrite fundamentalist Christian succumbs to his inner homosexual. Loudmouth overcompensating in public equals schadenfreude when caught. I like the Shanghaiist's no-nonsense story on the whole deal.
"Looks like: good judgement, self control, integrity, healthy relationships, communication skills with parents, resisting peer pressure, and respecting yourself and others, are good topics to bring to high schoolers!"
I agree. My point is that these values can easily be taught without the influence of a religious group claiming some sort of god given patent on them.
The FOTF refer to itself as fundamentalist Christian. While I shake my head at all the different religions I reserve the right to step it up a notch and use nutjob for people who are fundamentalists (here in the sense of taking the ramblings in the bible literally as facts and truths).
"Nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide." is FOTF's official mission.
One could of course argue that the family is a natural development in human evolution since we in order to function efficiently as upright bi-pedal beings developed a narrow birth canal hence our offspring needed to be born early before the skull grew too large. Ergo we had to devote lots of resources from both father and mother to allow the child to develop sufficiently to take care of itself. Bingo,, the family was born, but let's save that discussion for some other day.
Now I wonder what the -supposedly atheist- central government in Beijing has to say when Hu and Wen discover that Yunnan has let fundamentalist Christian nutjobs influence the educational system.
/
"A professor at Yunnan University's student counseling center told Global Times that young women should not have sex prior to marriage.
"If a girl had sex with her boyfriend, she would become mentally dependent on the boy," Yang said. "It would do no good for her studies and daily life."
-Why don't you just mind your own damn business professor Yang? Who gave you the right to morally lecture people and dictate how they live their lives and what exactly qualifies you to do such a thing? Nice sexist view towards women you display by the way. Obviously females are incapable of thinking for themselves so you and other fools like you have to do it for them. How the hell can this guy be allowed to teach at a university??
/
Some dumb sheep said on Yunnan.cn:
"This way of thinking is very good. Old Master Confucius said as much more than 2,000 years ago. But this step comes a little late, now only using educational materials won't get the job done, things like the internet, television and movies must be controlled."
I wouldn't even know where to begin with this one.
Went there yesterday and it totally made my week. Nice decor and friendly staff and a real salad bar. Sadly we both wanted mexican food so I can't really say much about their other courses. The food was great but just a tad spicier would have improved the dish. The best thing was that we almost had the place to ourselves and we could have a quiet conversation without shouting, spitting Chinese people in the background. I realised how much I had missed that since coming here.
We went to Chicago Coffee a couple of days ago and it was a nice experience. The place is cozy with soft comfy chairs (I realized how much I have missed one since coming here) and they have a nice little collection of English language books in the corner consisting mainly of classics and travel litterature. I was looking forward to trying their advertized tortilla bar but it wasn't up and running that evening.
Instead we went for 2 12 inch pizzas -roast chicken and pepperoni- but we quickly realized that 1 would have been enough. Those things are heavy. I am mainly into Italian style pizza but Chicago's double layered pizzas are well worth a try. Their coffee seems to be a bit on the expensive side but people say good things about it and they have got a nice selection. I wouldn't mind dropping by again some day,, hopefully when they've got the tortilla thing going. English speaking staff btw.
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Yunnan's tourism industry lagging behind its neighbors
发布者The entrance fees are and will be a concern for national tourists though I don't really know if Yunnan's direct competitors are charging similar sky rocketing ticket prices or not. Furthermore Kunming is going to get passed by as a stopover for tourists now that nearly every area worth visiting in Yunnan has an airport and frankly I can't blame tourists for not including Kunming in their plans.
This place might still be a decent place to live and work but honestly, what is there to see around here for a tourist? The Stone Forest it the only one think I can think about but there are karst formations all over Southern China, many of which are nicer and cheaper to visit than the one near Kunming. In 5 years Chinese tourists will fly into Shangri-La, take a bus or train to Lijiang, fly from there to Tengchong, then they'll fly to Jinhong (or whatever Sipsangpanna's main city is called) and from there they'll go back home. Kunming's tourist industry is pretty much fxcked and the hiked up fees all over Yunnan will ensure that no one ever comes back to visit.
Furthermore I think we all have a feeling that not only do we get screwed over when we want to visit the scenic spots but also that the money we have to cough up end up in the wrong pockets, or at least will be spent on anything else than preserving the natural beauty of the blah blah blah that every area claim.
China men's footballers to battle Syria in Kunming
发布者First chance to watch some live footie in more than 2 years and it's on a Friday where I can't go. :(
American conservative group makes inroads into China's classrooms
发布者Yet another hypocrite fundamentalist Christian succumbs to his inner homosexual. Loudmouth overcompensating in public equals schadenfreude when caught. I like the Shanghaiist's no-nonsense story on the whole deal.
American conservative group makes inroads into China's classrooms
发布者"Looks like: good judgement, self control, integrity, healthy relationships, communication skills with parents, resisting peer pressure, and respecting yourself and others, are good topics to bring to high schoolers!"
I agree. My point is that these values can easily be taught without the influence of a religious group claiming some sort of god given patent on them.
The FOTF refer to itself as fundamentalist Christian. While I shake my head at all the different religions I reserve the right to step it up a notch and use nutjob for people who are fundamentalists (here in the sense of taking the ramblings in the bible literally as facts and truths).
American conservative group makes inroads into China's classrooms
发布者"Nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide." is FOTF's official mission.
One could of course argue that the family is a natural development in human evolution since we in order to function efficiently as upright bi-pedal beings developed a narrow birth canal hence our offspring needed to be born early before the skull grew too large. Ergo we had to devote lots of resources from both father and mother to allow the child to develop sufficiently to take care of itself. Bingo,, the family was born, but let's save that discussion for some other day.
Now I wonder what the -supposedly atheist- central government in Beijing has to say when Hu and Wen discover that Yunnan has let fundamentalist Christian nutjobs influence the educational system.
/
"A professor at Yunnan University's student counseling center told Global Times that young women should not have sex prior to marriage.
"If a girl had sex with her boyfriend, she would become mentally dependent on the boy," Yang said. "It would do no good for her studies and daily life."
-Why don't you just mind your own damn business professor Yang? Who gave you the right to morally lecture people and dictate how they live their lives and what exactly qualifies you to do such a thing? Nice sexist view towards women you display by the way. Obviously females are incapable of thinking for themselves so you and other fools like you have to do it for them. How the hell can this guy be allowed to teach at a university??
/
Some dumb sheep said on Yunnan.cn:
"This way of thinking is very good. Old Master Confucius said as much more than 2,000 years ago. But this step comes a little late, now only using educational materials won't get the job done, things like the internet, television and movies must be controlled."
I wouldn't even know where to begin with this one.