The Language Corner at Green Lake is still running, but it tends to be a lots of Chinese people jumping on a few English speakers.
We have an English & game corner at Gemen Game Cafe, 136 Wenlin jie.
It is every Monday from 7.30 and there is between 15 to 30 people coming every week.
Games are a perfect excuse to talk with other people and have a good time.
There is a game fee of 5rmb for the evening.
Have a nice time
Enforcing smoke-free places in Kinming is impossible, i wish i could as i am a non-smoker myself.
However we have quite a few seats next to the windows, afternoon are fairly quiet, which means you can have a table without smoke near you easily.
On Monday night the people of the language corner are quite civilized and always accommodate non-smokers as best as possible.
Hi, I am Daniel, the owner of the Game Cafe.
Every Monday from 7.30 there is a language-game corner. It is a great way to meet Chinese and foreigners alike interested in boardgames. The ambiance is really easy going and there is always a little group of real game enthusiast coming. For example, Settlers of Catan have been played quite a few times in the last 2 months.
It will run all Mondays this months excepted the 15th. It's just 5 kuai for the evening.
Hope to see you there and maybe we can have a game together.
No need for intelligent guesses, you just need to read what you are filling up when you entered the country. The arrival card you fill up when you entered china, as well as any residence registration you will do, clearly states that you have to register within 72 hours.
In practice, kunming administration is relatively relax. If you are staying in an hotel for a week or so, no one will bother you, even if you are technically not following the rules. If you are staying more than that you should register.
Hi guys,
This is Daniel from the game Cafe. We will have Axis&Allies soon, Possibly before the end of the week. We will also have very soon a game called Talisman. It is a cross between role playing and board game on a heroic fantasy theme. Check-it out on the web it is pretty cool i think.
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Actually there is nothing Bizarre. French Tarot is NOT the thing english speakers know as Tarot. French Tarot is a very popular card game in France, nothing esoteric about it.
So English speakers play a popular english game while French speakers play a popular french game :)
We listen to criticism and improve ourselves. Now we have a new lunch menu, come to check it out.
Chingis and DanTheMan comments refers to an earlier post I did regarding a few bad reviews we got last years when we hit a bump in the road.
The Box says goodbye
发布者Little piece of information: many landlords are not left out of the handover fees. A comon practice is to have a relative posing as the owner of the biz going out and pocketing the handover fees (after kicking the current biz out of it without any kind of compensation).
Handover fees have been going up drastically, but at least the biz that was moving in had a chance of recovering it and getting compensation for renovation cost when they were moving out. Many of the premises in wenlin jie area were dump before a bar renovate them and did something nice out of it. Any kind of renovation cost at least 200-300,000 rmb, so how are new biz suppose to do? Recover that investment in 1 year, ridiculous!
Starbucks moving into Yunnan to support China expansion
发布者Starbucks integrating Yunnan coffee in its global supply chain is probably a very good thing for the Yunnan economy. It will raise the profile of the yunnan coffee and will also probably significantly increase directly the sale volume.
However at a personal level I would be dismay to see one open in Wenlin jie / Wen hua xiang. Starbucks have financial capacity that make the competition with local bar/cafe totally unfair.
Why is it a big advantage to have some much cash reserve? They can buy their shop, when most cafe owner just don't have the cash for that. If you own your shop you are not at the mercy of a landlord raising your rent by 50% and thus making your biz not sustainable. It also mean that you can afford to spend more in renovation and decoration because you know that you have 10 years to recover those costs, instead of the 6 years most local cafe have to count on (after one renewal, when biz is finally starting to be good, the rent can go crazy). Owning their shop also mean that after a few year Starbucks operational costs will raise only moderately (rent is a big chunk of operational cost) when local cafe will see their costs rise due to rent pressure. Owning a shop also mean that Starbucks will have far lower operational costs than most local cafe, making it way more profitable. Why lower costs, because instead of paying a rent they make an initial investment that they totally recover (possibly make another profit on) when they close business and sell the place.
Local cafe are mostly run by passionate people who love what they are doing and are not globalized corporation with huge cash flow. So it is sad to see cities losing their local cafe scene to Starbucks and the transformation of local area into "mall streets". I am not an anti-Starbucks guy, they brought a cafe scene in many places that did not have one to start with, but Kunming has already a cafe scene which creates unique cross cultural interaction and has grown to be an important element of Kunming culture.
It's greatly up to us, as customers, to support the local cafe scene by choosing them over Starbucks, if it comes to that.
Divorce rates rising among young couples in Kunming
发布者Higher divorce rate is a common trend in societies that move away from farming based economy towards industry and services economy. Disturbingly enough, it is often described as a loss of moral standard attributed to some social disfunction widely known, for china the one child policy.
Sociologist, or your own careful observation, shows that it has more to do with the fact that women gain access to some level of financial autonomy, allowing them to break free (at least partially) from some of the most social pressure to conform to the established order. In short with their own job (even crappy ones) they can choose to conform or get away form the role of good compliant housewife.
My personal observation is also that Chinese men tends to have an attitude that will only accelerate this trend, as a lot of them have trouble breaking with tradition, especially telling their parents that "no she is not there to serve you".
Lastly, marriage in China induce a wagon of commitment and expectation from the family. It is easy to say i will support you when you get married but the harsh reality of what it actually means financially can be a serious strain for a marriage (try to buy a house for yourself and both set of parents before your 30 in today's China!). A strain not helped if the lady has some high expectation for her lifestyle.
Interview: Shxpir
发布者I love their mix of retro and futuristic, go check their website (www.shxpir.com/), its full of more good photos. Also check "the edge" website (edge.neocha.com/tag/shxpir/), it has funny narrative about some picture. A few photos there have a fairly homo-erotic feel and remind me of the work done by Pierre & Gilles.
This is not really the kind of image I associate with China, even its art scene. I also find refreshing the surrealist taste of their image. I think it has a diffuse feel of derision, mocking the current obsession with modernity and beauty.
China blogs: annoying commercials, Jackie Chan gaffes, and more
发布者Chinese Literature Prize
Gao Xingjian / 高行健 received the nobel prize of literature in 2000. The press release for the prize refers notably to "soul Mountain". Gao Xingkian was a recognized artist in Beijing in the 80's. However his work has been banned in China for many years and he is a French citizen since 1997 or 99 (depending on which bio you read). While in China he translated several major author in Chinese and while in France he has written several plays in French.
Nobel prize link:
nobelprize.org/[...]