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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Police certificate of no criminal records

Mae
Your BEST solution is to contact one of the law firms that advertise on here (because they're bilingual...sort of and bad reviews will kill an advertiser here quickly, so the law firms are usually positively reviewed).

NOT that that's a qualification for reliability and fairness, but it's a good start in lieu of no information.

If you need assistance with the law firms, You MAY want to PM @longdragon (assuming he's still in country) as he knows BOTH law firms who've advertised here. He can help refer you fee-based (if it's troublesome) or gratis (if you just need a referral - the threat or knowledge of an in-country buddy can help get things done to your satisfaction).

Don't forget - once you get the police certification - it'll need to be notarized (probably), translated, then notarized again (or translated and notarized), for authenticity.

Good luck getting this done remotely. What a pain.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > who thinks we chat is for business use

HFCAMPO merely pointed out that thanks to people like Steve Jobs et al - people have become slaves to their mobile phones (like the Darwin awardee candidate who walked off a cliff while texting). Instead of freeing us from the mundane, we've merely entrapped ourselves with tech - the arguably diametric opposite of the purpose of tech.

On that note - one can also use Taobao's mobile app to search for competitive travel fares...as alternatives to the sometimes massive markups from the brick & mortar travel agencies (we were just quoted prices over ¥10k higher than calling the airlines directly - although we'd get to experience 2x as many international airports - never been to Bali's international airport, at roughly 1.5-2x longer travel time and probably 2x or higher probability of losing checked in baggage - which we try to avoid because of TSA, the anti-Christ's associates.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > who thinks we chat is for business use

HFCAMPO
I know what kind of mobile phone you use - WECHAT is absolutely not targeting you as a user and I respect both sides of that issue.

WECHAT is a P2P social media platform that provides a wealth of additional features, including B2C and C2B. Western social media platforms, such as twitter, etc are beginning to copy the Chinese phenomenon as an extension to increasing market share and revenues without the annoying googleads crap. Expect to see a flurry of M&As as they snap up applications and services. WECHAT et al will naturally suffer from abuses, such as spam, identify theft, and solicitations for sketchy services - so caveat emptor. Abuses can be reported and similar to most social media platforms, requires an unpublished and un-advertised critical mass of complaints before some kind of punitive or blocking action is enforced.

It's a great platform for group messaging, but not particularly useful for professional group messaging (look at bitrix24, github et al for something more professional and private).

As for protecting your identify - putting yourself out on the internet demands a certain amount of discretion and common sense. The need to publish one's self online for the world to see, when you wouldn't normally reveal such information personally to a complete stranger defies logic.

Along with useful public and social benefits, comes all the associated abuses, but I've personally found WECHAT to be an interesting and diverse platform for providing a wide breadth of consumer services - from their UBER clone, POS e-payments, paying bills, ordering delivery services, etc ad infinitum.

But again, a modicum of common sense is in order.

And for the record, WECHAT and similar social media platforms in China were recently lauded in the hi-tech west as examples of copied western tech that then took off in a flurry of incredible innovation to become a global example of the commercialization of formerly free web services WITHOUT the click ads approach to revenue generation - although those activities are most certainly also present.

My neighbor uses WECHAT to run her own home-based store selling various products to her increasingly growing network of contacts.

Best approximation is an network extension of the AMWAY/Nutrilife/Mary Kay et al social networking businesses, using a social media platform - with the associated risks of doing business online for both parties.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming FRAUD

The above things being said, these kinds of behaviors are quite common in legitimate businesses also - minus the buying government officials gifts - ANYTIME somebody mentions the word government official (or state owned company) and gift - walk away - it is pure corruption and illegal in China and most of the developed world.

Nominal gifts would be something from YOUR country of nominal but cultural value. Buying crap here to give away is bribery. Nominal gifts are things like pens, books, confectionaries (chocolates, candies, etc) and should ONLY be give to the company leader IF they are NOT government officials or officials of state owned enterprises.

As the alleged source of finance, it is inappropriate to request gifts of any kind - this is akin to taking money out of your pocket, giving it to someone, and asking them to buy something for you - it makes zero sense, unless that money in your pocket doesn't belong to you.

When dealing in foreign countries, one should ALWAYS work with established legal entities in those countries to vet opportunities.

The only time this is difficult to do is when the projects are project financed - usually the project owners will solicit various stakeholders BEFORE they create the SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle), but those projects are easier to vet as each party is a stakeholder and bears it's own costs - no gift giving there, unless you're feeling particularly happy and generous.

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@asatirical
It's no prob...I was actually amused. The leadoff reminded me of Chevy Chase's famous news skits on SNL (Jane, you ignorant....). Apologies for goading you into a massive response. Out of respect, I read it all and concur - but...kids will be kids...sometimes, they just gotta learn things the hard way, in the real world.

As for the professional project management comment - I was commenting on the PM process, not the extraordinarily polarizing debatable aspects of mandatory PE for emerging adults. The university exhibited the core PM processes - which I find unusual with most government organizations and officials (to include USA - not familiar with the shenanigans of other governments, so no opinions there).

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Dear satyrical bloke
Perhaps it's the brevity of internet blogs - however thank you for broadly insinuating publicly I'm a failure as a parent, based on a singular vague and unimplemented opinion. I'm guessing my personal opinion must have been highly inflammatory to elicit such a highly inflammatory comment.

As a parental failure - I'll use any and all tools available to guide my children towards being self-sustaining, productive, ethical, moral, and responsible citizens of society. If the kids refuse to study at home, do their home chores, are addicted to their digital devices, disrespectful - I'll put them in boarding school jails, where they're forced to study under someone else's oppressive eye, digital devices are forbidden or destroyed, physical daily exercise is mandatory, and their every living and waking moment is controlled.

If university trained/prepared professional life isn't desirable to them, I'll try to guide them into sustainable vocational careers, to include military service.

As a parental failure, I'm also of the opinion that my primary duty is not to be my children's best friend, although perhaps that will come with time and maturity (from both parties - parent AND child) - but to prepare them for a responsible self sustainable life without me, fiscal, environmental, and social responsibility.

We never know how long we can breathe and wander the earth - so yes, I'm absolutely a chronic failure as a parent - better than some - worse than others. So I strive to "parent" with "a sense of urgency".

Incredibly astute of you to pick ascertain my chronic and pervasive failure as a parent, based on a singular, as yet unimplemented opinion of mandatory physical education with a stated and measurable performance metric.

On that note - the university was incredibly amazing in stating and implementing this specific requirement. It showed some potentially incredible project management skills as opposed to the typically vague management directives.

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Took the family here to stroll around and there's a LOT of walking. Many of the stores appear closed, but the bar street nestled inside seems quite well populated.

We chose the Japanese restaurant near the entrance (there are many entrances). The food and service was quite acceptable - from the fruit salad, tuna salad, curry pork cutlet, and the ubiquitous California Sush Rolls (you can buy the small size or the large size).

It rained a little while we were there, which helped drench the heat and humidity. When the sun came out - it was HOT.

If you're lucky, you'll occasionally see people (usually women) wearing minority clothing being photographed by professional photographers. There's also a small photographer's store where you can rent various ethnic clothing and have professional pictures taken (maybe the two are related...now that I think about it).

There's also the ubiquitous game centers (shooting galleries etc) for the kids and unaccompanied teenagers.

It seems the most popular venues were the prolific food courts - but that's probably related to it being lunchtime when we visited. The place is clean and plenty of antiqued door fronts (the wood panels) for those photo shoots.

Capping off the visit, one must of course take pictures on the bridges crossing the lily ponds and the landmark temple spire. We didn't make it to the surrounding temples. Maybe next time.

Transportation is everywhere - but make sure you have your mobile phone ride share app working, just in case you hit rush hour.

Again - for now - it seems many vendors were closed - but I'm positive that'll change again as the economy begins to rebound.

Excellent way to spend a half day as opposed to the kids faces glued to their mobile devices...fresh air, good food, plenty of people watching, and walking...walking...walking...

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Took the family here a few days ago. Wonderful place to go walking with lots of snack & drink kiosks (along with chairs and tables) to rest frequently. This zoo is similar to most other large open air zoos with reasonably spacious enclosures. This place is HUGE so be prepared for a LOT of walking. Consider wearing sensible hiking or walking shoes. Your feet will be grateful.

Entrance fees when we went still cny100 for adults and kids cny70. Feeding the animals at the managed venues - cny30 per site...per child. Monkeys can be fed by tossing carrots and sliced apples into their enclosure - which is good. Monkeys famous for flash mobbing. Can be terrifying for kids (and adults). Even in the enclosures, you can clearly see they're territorial and aggressive. Bullying is displayed frequently enough for teaching moments for the kids (cuz there are monkeys in all schools everywhere in the world).

MOST people bring their own food and drink, as the kiosks are quite expensive. Example a cny5 drink outside is cny10 in the zoo, so expect most everything to be twice as expensive. I had a bbq chick drumstick (leg?) for cny25...ouch.

Bring carrots. LOTS of carrots. The zoo has several managed (paid) and unmanaged petting areas for most semi-domesticated animals, such as the Alpacas (seriously cute), deer, giraffes (ok...you can feed the giraffes on an elevated platform, but probably difficult to "pat" the animals. It's kind of spectacular to actually see giraffes face to face - these animals are simply vertigo inducing huge and tall.

The seal show was nice - typical of seal shows everywhere. Seals are kind of like the dogs of the sea. Friendly and ravenous appetites so easily trainable.

Lots of cheap touristy souvenirs to buy the for the kiddies (and relatives kids).

HIGHLY recommend taking the bus tour - they basically zoom around picking up and dropping off customers (they check your e-ticket at every pickup site) at entrances and exits to walking enclosures. They'll drop you off at roughly 15 minute walking sites. NO need to rush and you can grab ANY bus upon emerging from the walking enclosure sites.

Of course, the ultimate attraction always the lion and tiger exhibits at the top of the mountain.

Bring a fan. It gets hot. We were fortunate as the sky was mostly overcast so the temperature was generally cool, but heated up almost instantly whenever the sun peeked out of the clouds.

Bring LOTS of water. Most veteran tourists have their own liter bottles of water. Bring your own umbrella. When the sun comes out - it's HOT. Bring a wide brimmed hat if you're into comfort over vanity. SUNTAN LOTION never goes astray.

Aside from that - typical Chinese group site with everyone rushing the buses and ticket counters. Not so much rushing for the food venues, so seems the elevated prices keep that comfortably in check.

All in all - GREAT place to take the kiddies (or a date if you both know you're into each other - cuz you'll be spending an entire day together). The Outdoor Zoo seems exceptionally well designed with plenty of both managed and unmanaged (eg walking deer along the roadside and the stroll through the peacock "garden").

Easy cab or shared ride out and back. Taxis aplenty when you're ready to leave (just walk past the parking lot gate - they'll be waiting for you). You should consider dining out or delivery at the end of the day.

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Took the kiddies here again.

1. It's FREE.
2. NO knives, lighters, sharp objects, etc. There's a place in front to check bags, luggage (if you're traveling), etc - but the exit is in the rear of the monolithic building, so it's a bit of a hike to walk back around to the checked storage area (it's also FREE).

THIRD FLOOR
We went straight to the third floor - History and artifacts of Yunnan (mostly). Rich history - lots of original sculptures etc removed from grottoes and displayed in the museum. Lots of English language titles and occasionally some explanatory text in English.

SECOND FLOOR
This is the evolution floor with lots of petrified artifacts - sea life mostly, lots of recreations of animals and environments from pre-man times.

There are coffee shops and dining areas on the first floor and drink vending machines on the second and third floors. The place is HUGE so a great place to take the kiddies and walk around until they're tired. They'll probably enjoy the dinosaur exhibit on the second floor the most. Wait a few minutes and the dinosaurs will roar and move their heads and maybe pretend to chew (open and close their maws).

PLENTY of parking and unfortunately NOT close to any subway station, so you'll have to grab a cab or rideshare but seems taxis and transportation are aplenty in the city and surrounding environs.

And...it's FREE for now. Museum closes at 5pm so make sure you leave by 430-445 so you can hike back to the storage area if you checked anything in as they also close at 5pm.

Enjoy!

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This is a great place to walk around and generally kill time while shopping for nothing in particular. Nearby is the Paulaner Brewhouse for super fantastic food, coffee and drinks, outdoor patio dining or just hanging and people watching.

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DATE
2022.01.17

SUMMARY
Just popped in for the annual to biennial visa health check. Cost was CNY 487 - don't forget to bring at least THREE (3) visa pictures and your mask.

As usual, there are TWO health codes to display - the usual kunming/yunnan green QR code and the green "Arrow" code.

ARRIVAL
I went late in the morning, but still managed to shuttle through all the departments and get out before lunch.

I used didi to get there and the map now correctly shows the rear parking entrance as the destination drop-off point. You can also take the subway to a nearby station, and walk walk walk walk walk - it's actually not too far but it will elevate your blood pressure and pulse (BPP) - so make sure to rest 5-10 minutes to allow your BPP to drop back to resting state.

Upon arrival at the main gate, you'll do the usual check-in procedure - mask, sign-in, green QR code, temperature check.

Once inside - Present your passport, green QR code, and green (hopefully) arrow code. Scan the QR codes on your left as you walk in if you don't have these prepared already. The staff will then pass you an application form. Walk over to the wall of stand-up desks to your right, fill out the forms, then stroll over to the clerks to present the form. They'll print out a sheet of bar coded labels for your tests, take your digital picture, attach everything together with a paper clip, then direct you to the cashier to pay CNY 487 (WeChat, alipay, bank card, etc) Don't know if they still accept cash.

HEALTH CHECKS
Hike up the the 2nd or 3rd floor to start the battery of tests:

3rd floor

Chest X-ray

Physical (height, weight, BMI/body mass index)

2nd floor

ECG

Sonogram

Urine test

Blood Test

Eye test (color blindness and eye chart)

Dental

Heart (pulse, blood pressure)

I may have missed a few like the OB GYN...

It seems they also have a COVID/NAT (nucleic acid test) center in a shipping container lab outside the health center - but I didn't bother jogging over to check if it was still operational. In retrospect, should've checked, as the hospitals are jam packed with Chinese New Year travelers.

RESULTS PICKUP
The test results are ready the afternoon of the second day. The facility seems sparsely busy even though they service both foreigners and nationals. There were rarely lines or noticeable waits beyond a few minutes, with at most 1-2 people ahead of you.

Staff are always nice, polite, professional and tirelessly patient for those of us with limited to no communications abilities.