Just got back from work in the Cizhong area and the contiguous road down the valley from the Weixi area is still not complete. South of Cizhong in Weixi county the main road currently leaves the Lancang River and heads towards the town of Weixi, continuing past there to Shangri-La and Lijiang. Work is currently underway to build a new road that stays with the river when the main road leaves the Lancang in Weixi county but this is not complete yet. You will probably need to change your plans and re-route from Weixi to someplace like Lijiang or Dali and then reconnect with the Lancang from there...

What is the invite application letter that is now needed? Is this the same as getting an invitation letter from a Chinese citizen for a tourist visa? Seems silly that you'd need to be invited for a residence permit to a place where you already live (if renewing) by your own spouse...

The traveling part when school is in session still worries me a bit as a student who is supposed to be here to do research, which means travel is essential to what I'm doing. The guy from the campus foreign students office told me not to worry about it too much but then simultaneously has said I should show up to language classes when I'm in Kunming sometimes to keep the PSB happy. People have been coming to China for years on student visas with the sole purpose of doing research, but after these changes it still worries me a bit that next year when I need to renew the PSB will have some issue with all the travel I've done. Hopefully others are right and its a non-issue with public universities and just the private schools...

Student visas can be used for research as I am currently doing, but it must be facilitated through a public university, not through a private language school. You also need to have a sponsor/local advisor from the faculty at the university who will be the supervisor for your project. If you'll be working less than six months you can also simply get an invitation letter for an M used to be F visa which can be used for shorter term research. In all cases for things to be fully official, the university will also need to vet and get your research approved by the provincial foreign affairs office as well.

After a lot of searching last year my fiancé and I found a decent jewelry department within a big department store downtown that was able to weld and resize her engagement ring which I bought in the states. It's in the large square near Nanping Jie and the bus turnaround loop and the sidewalk water fountains. Don't know the name of the store but it's right on the edge of the square and the jewelry department is on the 4th or 5th floor.