Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China Carrefour is selling and 80% stake, does not necessarily mean that stores will close. Initially stores and staff will be absorbed by the new owner Sunning. For those areas that do not currently have a Sunning presence, t first all that will change will be the name on the door.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China Tesco did have a JV in China, but they pulled out several years ago.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China Airless holes. I think that sums up a lot of superstores/hypermarkets, in many parts of the world, that are located in a larger multistorey shopping complex. True for Walmart, Homemart, Sunning, Metro, and other places I have visited.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Bike registered - Selling second hand The authorities have been trying to control the ebike market for several years and previous attempts have not been successful. This time I believe it will be successful.
Almost daily I see police with a recovery/flatbed vehicle seizing unregistered machines. There seems to be a clear mandate to get the no longer legal ebikes off of the road.
Like @JanJal, I thing the main issues have been around safety. When I first came to China in 2004 ebikes were small, light, and only did about 20kph. I also believe they were only 12 v.
Now ebikes are bigger and heavier than a gas scooter, 72V and capable of over 60kph, and still no license, insurance, or training is required to ride one.
I have been hit by an ebike once, whilst riding my bicycle, and nearly been wiped out on at least two other occasions by kamikaze ebike riders.
I have seen several ebike crashes caused by riders who do not have proper control of their vehicle (using feet as brakes, slamming on the front bike causing a low-side and dropping the machine, panicking and just freezing as they plow into other vehicles), this is a training issue. Alternative, let the untrained ride smaller and slower machines.
The market needed controlling. Yes there will be some waste, but in the next 4 years some sanity will quickly return to the streets and cycle paths.
The alternatives are to let the 'arms race' (bigger faster ebikes) and carnage continue, or do what other cities have done and ban ebikes and bikes from downtown (more cars would be the pattern, not desirable), or let the old bikes die through natural wastage (bureaucratic and uncontrollable).
Forums > Living in Kunming > Bike registered - Selling second hand It looks like the police are actively trying to phase out the older machines.
Off the beaten rack: Finding real souvenirs in Laos
发布者UXO probably should stand for UneXploded Ordnance.
Developing a sustainable birdwatching industry in western Yunnan
发布者It is not so much the extra pressure on the environment that global tourism will cause, it is the effects that would occur if birdwatching becomes a more national phenomenon. I have seen the disruption caused by twitchers in the UK. If we multiply the potential for problems by the numbers factor (just look at any tourist site in Yunnan), this does require a lot of serious thought. The thought of a 'Birdline' China is a bit scary.
Around Kunming: Spring Festival business schedules
发布者Thanks. Happy CNY
Bringing a taste of Italy to Yunnan: An interview with Diego Triboli
发布者As I read in a novel. It is not being rich that is important, it is not being poor.
Weekend in Dali: A Chinese perspective
发布者The guest houses lakeside may well have been permanently hit, but how long ago was that? 1 or 2 years now? A year is a long time in Chinese business development.
The guesthouse trade will migrate a few hundred meters, creating new opportunities, if it has not already done so. I think the recovery has already taken a strong hold. Judging by the level of business I saw last week, and speaking to one local business owner.