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.

China Daily March 31 2009.

"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.