@liren
The NE of Kunming (Beisiqu) area is rife with expats and expat-ish restaurants and food (like cheese, bacon, ham, etc).
They have brand spanking new 300sqm apartments for sale/lease - 4bd 2+bath with "balcony". On the ground floor and surrounding communities are a plethora of real estate agents who'd be delighted to jack up the price x3 for foreigners - so bring a local attorney with you to negotiate lease/rent. SOME homeowners will lease to you for "free" if you furnish their investment apartment (usually something beyond bare concrete walls).
For Kunming, basically if there's a Wicker Basket (great place) and or an O'Reilly's Irish Bar...there be expats in the area.
You can search the gokm LISTINGS section for these two denizens of family and singles domains.
Close to subways is helpful. And if you want to drive - make sure you get parking for however many vehicles you intend to lease/purchase.
@redjon777: Okay, great--thank you. yes, my company is paying, so I'll gladly spend their money and check out that location. Is the school the Kunming International Academy?
@michael2015: Thank you for all the great info. I'll have to go check out those new apartments; I always enjoy a good negotiation adventure.
I just checked out those two places and they look great--definitely looking forward to giving them a try.
"For Kunming, basically if there's a Wicker Basket (great place) and or an O'Reilly's Irish Bar...there be expats in the area."
@micheal2015 agree with that as there is also a wicker basket right next to the school in the southern place I showed lol
@Liren Yes the school is KIA, I'd not looked at it it before but if you click on the the two Hupan Zhimeng markers in this link (north gate and a south gate marker) they have a few 4/5 star reviews from foreigners for that neighbourhood nearby the school www.google.co.jp/[...] likely to be quite foreigner friendly.
The more western designed ones as I said were just a couple minutes before this next to the french 1904 area if coming from InterContinental.
@redjon: I don't know of anywhere in Kunming that I would describe as not being 'foreigner friendly'. And there are lots of bars where 'foreigners' (i.e., westerners) go other than O'Reilly's (which is okay - lots of sports coverage), and other restaurants than Wicker Basket (which is indeed a good place to buy bread, and they have a nice salad bar).
Or simply browse a little yourself to get an idea of 4+ room houses in Wuhua district:
zu.km.fang.com/house-a01086/g299/
We live in the Beichen area and have 2 young kids. We love it as there are lots of open places for kids to play. Close to subway, Metro, foreigner-friendly restaurants. Most of the buildings don’t have elevators, so get something on a lower floor. Definitely more “sleepy” than most of the city, so bear that in mind, and probably not like Beijing expat living. Lots of 2-story (within 6-story building) apartments roughly 250 sq. m.
@aliennew wrong term used maybe, just meant more than the average place when it comes to the amount of foreigners you're likely to see.
Okay, great--thanks everyone. We'll be there in a few weeks to check all these places out.
