Stayed here for three nights over National Day, and it was great. It's brand new, so all the rooms are nice, large, and bright, and besides that the hostel has probably the best internet I've had in China as well as lots of games and books, TV/DVD's, and possibly the only pool table in Dali. Dave, one of the owners, is very friendly and usually ends up hanging out with guests at night, talking and playing chess or pool. They also were great about arranging travel for us and they have a fairly good restaurant.

This is the biggest buddhist temple in Kunming, supposedly, and it is pretty impressive. Offers a nice respite from the bustle around it, and the collection of turtles and gigantic frogs is pretty cool. Also lots of big buildings with huge statues in them.

I'm a big fan of book stores, but I liked this one a lot, though a lot of that is probably that it's one of two places with English-language books that I'm aware of in Kunming (the other one is Chapter One). It has probably a few hundred English titles, plus lots of Lonely Planets. Most of the stuff is pretty expensive, though: other than the 'classics,'which you can get for 30-40 kuai, most of the books I've looked at are at least 100 or so. That's what they cost back home, and they're here, but it still feels like a lot.

This park is great!! It's big and green--a nice surprise in the middle of this city--and it is always full of tons of people, many of whom are playing instruments. Very good place to wander for an afternoon.

Ate dinner here. It was pretty good, nice atmosphere, though the main dishes are a little pricier than I would have liked--average about 40 kuai or so. Still, it's worth going for them: I got a sandwich and it was fine, but my friend had the lamb curry and it was excellent.