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Forums > Living in Kunming > Renouncing Child's citizenship

@ocean
Simply show the child's UK passport when exiting China, if this issue arises. As long as you're traveling with the birth mother OR you have a document permitting you to transport the child as legal guardian (or worst case, a death certificate), this should not be an issue.

If you're concerned about exiting China on a Chinese passport without a destination visa - simply visit the Chinese ENTRY/EXIT office and ask the officer for advice. They will probably not be familiar with these special entry/exit procedures and will need to escalate the question to their supervisor.

Beware of staff making up stupid rules because they don't know the answer. The supervisor will know the correct policy and procedure. Make sure you get his name, badge number, and phone number (ask for it - don't just write it down) and ask politely if the exit office can call him to confirm, if you have problems exiting.

Front desk staff will probably panic if you ask if you can record their badge number and cite them as a reference at the airport entry/exit gates.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Renouncing Child's citizenship

@redjon
Many people travel with dual citizenship and dual passports. It is not illegal and rather typical in the EU, Canada, Australia, and especially Hong Kong, and becoming more frequent in China - especially since China somewhat relaxed its one-child policy for the Han-race minority (other recognized and designated minorities in China are not restricted by the one-child policy).

These are the simple steps to traveling with dual nationality passports. This assumes your child has both a Chinese AND a UK passport already, as I'm not familiar with entering / exiting China without a passport, even for babies.

ENTRY/EXIT CHINA
Upon entry/exit China, use China travel documents.

ENTRY/EXIT UK
Upon entry/exit UK, use your UK travel documents.

Rarely do immigration officials check WHERE you came from if you use that country's passport. If you're asked, just present the other passport, which shows entry/exit stamps. As you're traveling with a child on your UK passport and your child's Chinese passport, you should expect them to scrutinize both the entry and exit carefully, because of the issues of child trafficking and child kidnapping. If the immigration officer asks where you came from and the passport has no record of that exit - you'll need to show the second passport for proof.

If asked why you're entering the country with that country's passport - just tell them it's the law for dual citizenship holders.

There is nothing illegal about traveling with dual nationality passports, unless one of your home countries specifically has laws against that. It MAY raise eyebrows in third world countries (too many spy movies), but in most developed countries - this is not unusual; not pervasive, but not unusual.

As long as you're forthcoming in your answers - you should have no issues traveling with your child.

FYI - in the USA - even if/when our child is/was a baby, we were required to secure children's passports when traveling.

Children's passports expire every FIVE (5) years and the USA recently stopped its program of "adding pages" to passports, so we always get the "extra pages" passports, at no additional cost (adding pages used to cost us USD 80+, while a new passport was USD 105).

Finally - and not related to this thread - if your child was born in a foreign country and you secured a US Consulate/Embassy Report of Birth Abroad as a "birth certificate" AND you bring your kids to China under the US passport - the US State Department will NOT authenticate your children's birth certificates.

If you have this issue, PM me and I'll tell you how to legally resolve this issue, bypassing the US State Department's bizarre policy (since 2012). If more than one person PM's me - I'll just start another thread.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > English Teaching Jobs in Classifieds

@octobersky
PUBLIC EMAILS VS CORPORATE DOMAIN NAMES
Most SME's (small to medium enterprises) in China use public domain emails in-country, because of the revolving firewall. Once a domain name is blocked or "restricted", it's a time consuming process to have your domain name whitelisted - meanwhile no emails are coming in or going out without the VPN - which seems to be a game of whack-a-mole.

Losing access to your email is utterly unacceptable in today's high speed digital age. Most campus (corporate, governmental, and academic) email systems and IT systems in general are poorly managed, poorly staffed, poorly trained, with generally abysmal infrastructure. I believe I'm being generous with my praise.

WORKING IN CHINA
I highly recommend you try to find employment with an established firm FIRST. There's another concurrent string about working at the Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, but the financial issues there are rather nominal (aside from the 3 month lapse in salary).

A mainline organization, such as a university, is much less prone to playing games with its foreign faculty as they tend to process boatloads of foreign faculty and students annually.

Smaller private organizations would be more susceptible to fleecing or bait and switch tactics.

The larger institutions typically pay sub-par - but it's generally stable and reliable AND will expose you to the pseudo-official way of doing business and working in China, so you'll be able to sniff out questionable business practices with the privately owned enterprises.

This will give you a more stable base from which to "expand your horizons".

For a list of teaching institutions in Yunnan, just search wikipedia for "list of universities in Yunnan" (or kunming), then try to find each university's Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) to sell yourself.

FOREIGN EXPERT DESIGNATION
Usually, the academic institution will register you as a "foreign expert". This process has become increasingly demanding and rigid, to comply with the rest of China. I've heard that Yunnan is part of a 12-city pilot - which usually means new process, new staff, and SNAFU FUBAR experiences as you navigate through this new layer of frustrating and bewildering administerium.

Your mileage may vary (YMMV).

Good luck and happy hunting!

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Renouncing Child's citizenship

@redjon
The very unique nature of your request indicates something vastly more complicated than a baidu/google search can answer.

I highly recommend you contact and retain a qualified and respected domestic visa/immigration attorney to help you resolve this very complicated and time consuming issue.

Cost for domestic attorneys for most things is typically about CNY 6k.

As for departing China in a timely fashion, as long as your child has a current UK passport AND you've properly registered the child at the Chinese Entry/Exit (VISA) office, paid all the penalties and fees for the child's visa - you should have no issues, as long as you're traveling with the birth mother OR she's given explicit written permission.

The attorney will tell you whether you can complete the child's citizenship renunciation at the Embassy/Consulate of China in the UK.

I'll end this with an ominous unsolicited comment. If a foreigner is caught attempting to illegally exit this country with their biological child, who is legally recognized as a Chinese citizen, without the birth mother or her explicit written permission, the consequences may be extremely harsh and severe, both here and potentially in your home country, especially considering the UK's cozying up to China via the AIIB.

Rarely will a foreign parent win a custody dispute, so the best solution is to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution, that benefits the child.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Teachin at KM Uni. Science/Technology

Getting paid months late - that's unacceptable. No Chinese would accept that kind of laziness.

As for paying taxes - that's normal for every developed country in the world - you're lucky they didn't deduct for healthcare / insurance.

It seems major universities are scrutinizing their accounting practices, which is slowing everything related to accounting offices - such as salaries, reimbursements, authorizations, etc down to a glacial speed.

This is directly and primarily a result of the nationwide crackdown on corruption - although some may have excessively if not abusively overzealous exercised their newfound power, in the quest for compliance.

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@Geogramatt
Assuming your question was serious - a simple google or bing search will yield a plethora of results. The UN (un.edu) has an excellent article on China and India's definition of "poverty lines", but the information is probably outdated as China's economy zooms ahead. China's National Development & Reform Commission - which manages the national five year plan strategies contains the general high level requirements for sustainable development of this country (en.ndrc.gov.cn).

China's five years plans used to be mocked and ridiculed by the western media - but if you've ever performed or witnessed requirements engineering and the processes and artifacts - you cannot but conclude these artifacts are world class professional documents. The Five Year Plans are essentially high level requirements, which indicate the government's architecture for this country - which are then supposed to be devolved by project owners (government officials) into detailed planning documents for execution, monitoring & controlling, and phase out - following generally accepted globally recognized professional standards for professional project management.

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Many of China's sustainable poverty elimination plans included seeding of livestock (chickens, pigs, etc) to enable animal husbandry, to increase annual income of the farmers. Last reports were China had sustainable eliminated poverty for over 800 million citizens, with roughly 70-80 million to go. Xi JinPing's goal is 100% elimination by 2020.

Regardless of definition - the consistent attention to poverty elimination is laudable and China's accomplishment in this area is unparalleled in recorded history - resulting in formal recognition by the UN for its successful efforts in this area.

Occasionally, there are questionable ploys to eliminate poverty - such as merely moving people from poverty stricken areas to a different place, to accomplish the numbers - however moving to more fertile or arable ground with better access to transportation, water, healthcare and education facilities can also be considered an improvement in quality of life.

China's current Five Year Plans call for the industrialization of the rural areas, in a responsible sustainable manner. This next move will involve a major cultural shift in the rural areas as farmers begin to aggregate land and resources, pay more attention to water and soil pollution, and reduce the uses of chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

Animal husbandry is another area of potential aggregation - with tremendous opportunities for the high technologies from developed nations such as the EU (+UK), Japan, and USA.

All of these technologies offer the opportunity of significantly reduced water usage and significantly reduced water pollution. It's actually a rather exciting period of history to watch as this massive country continues its transition into a developed nation and global leader and expands into the belt and road with infrastructure development for its neighbors.

If the China model can be applied along the belt and road - the entire Middle East and Africa will finally have the opportunity to similarly eliminate poverty, develop sustainable economies, and perhaps even make serious dents on global terrorism.

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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.