I have some VHS that I want put on DVD.

Does anybody know anyone in Kunming who can do it?

Kunming Ju Hau Chun is the wholesale market for medicines. Try there. There are, I estimated, about 200 vendors there. Mostly for raw herb, but not exclusively. Shop around there

If you are an expat, and worried about paying over the odds get some little old lady to buy it for you. But there are so many vendors in this area, and it is a wholesale market, I doubt your order would be that big to them.

I would imagine that granules are always going to cost a lot more, as they are a factory processed product. But they do take the bother, and the smell, out of your life.

I don't know why cooking at home is a problem, but we have bought a thing like an electric kettle. Apart from the smell, it just sits on the kitchen worktop and bubbles away quietly.

Go to the Thai consulate on Dong Feng Dong Lu. Try to apply for a visa there.

Chatting with a local today.
There is a lot of dust being kicked up by the subway/metro construction that is making things worse downtown.
This can only add to the more car thing. One good thing about Kunming is the prevailing inshore wind from the south, blowing clean air into the city. Unless of course you live below the mountains in the north.

If there is 7 of you, I would suggest hiring a 9 seat mini-bus and driver. If you can haggle in Chinese, there are loads of husband and wife driver guides and you can negotiate price. However, the guide will be a Chinese speaker.

If you organise through a travel agent they can do it all for you, especially if you need an English speaking guide. Try several agents, but I think the margins are pretty tight as competition is high outside main holiday seasons. I would not do any research now, as you will get the now price (Spring Festival). I would wait until a week or two after the hols. However, almost anything in China can be organised on the spot, as you probably well know.

However, there is a risk that if you buy a package they will drag you around all the markets to earn some commission from market owners. And so don't get sucked into a package deal. And avoid the cheapest deal, as they will have to make up the money somehow.

Seeing as you are travelling so far, it is unlikely that you will find a guide who knows all the sites. As such the most effective would be to find a guide in each location you go to, if you want in-depth interpretation. Or look at wiki-travel, lonely planet, etc before you go, and print stuff off.

We tend not to use tour guides. If they are from the site, they will often whisk you through quickly to get the next customer. Unless it is a very quiet day and she is a nice girl. My wife then acts as interpreter.
A good guide we will tip. This then makes it easier for the next family who not just focussed on price.

If the guide is not from the site, they will not know much more than you can find in half an hour on the Web.

I am not an expert, but that is how we have handled things when we travel. We hire a bus and driver, and look at a book for travel info. Only at some sites do we hire a guide.