I think this is great. I have been hit twice (minor) by electric bikes running on sidewalks. I hope this 100 day "crackdown" is just a lead in to long term enforcement.

Maybe I am just dreaming here, but maybe someday all the traffic laws will be enforced here. Kunming has the worst disobedience caused traffic chaos I have seen in China. (Except for Qujing. There are massive roads and less cars there so I don't count Qujing as a major problem. Don't bother with your horn there, no one will ever look.) I wish everyone would see the big picture driving here. If you follow the laws, everyone can move faster and crash less because the person in front of you will drive more predictably.

Sounds like a pipe dream, huh?

Had to figure out what blu-tak was. We call it tiki-tac where I come from. Metro has it. I saw it when i was buying office supplies a few days ago. Not blue though but kinda yellowish and has something tak in the name. Its in the office supply section next to the labels. This advice is offered as is and carries no warranty as metro runs out or changes sh all the time.

My coworker just bought a new fake one for 1000 kuai ordered from HK. You are probably being pushed to buy one because they are selling them for alot less. I played with it alot. Did a side by side with a real ipod touch. My opinion: I want one! It looks, feels, and smells like an Iphone. There are some differences. Cons: No GPS. Camera is maybe not as good as the crappy authentic Iphone camera. The pic zoom gesture works like windows mobile and not iphone, which I am sure is because it is a cheaper non-multitouch screen. Has a few less apps than the stock iphone apps. Pros: It is a really good copy, including the english. Plays MP3 music (no itunes :D). Does all the iphone flicking gestures, pretty icons, etc. Runs Java apps, so no need to buy iphone apps. Screen i think is a little brighter. Its 1000 kuai, which costs less than getting the screen fixed on a real iphone. Hey, copies aren't all bad ;) They did some things that previously stopped me from buying a real iphone

Generally if you are hitting foreign sites, they run hot and cold as far as speed. If you do an IP trace, everything gets routed through Beijing before it goes out. There is the network bottleneck. I have the best luck loading foreign sites early in the morning (6-8 AM), but generally it slows through the day. But one thing is sure, it is alot faster than it was a few years ago. Your torrents and P2P stuff is mostly in China anyway, so it seems to run pretty quick.

I've had a hard enough time finding vanilla extract, sorry. I haven't checked Paul's yet, but I will soon. I will make sure and check for beans too. Stuff like that is hard to find as Chinese don't use it and cooking foreign in China is too diffucult for most Expats.

Checked Metro, Carrefour, and a supposed foreign commercial cooking supply market.

Have you checked Paul's Shop?