Hi i just moved to kunming for a year to study chinese. I was wondering if someone could tell me which mobile phone provider is the best. I've heard some dont do international calls, messages? Also, gyms, are there any year Yunnan uni? Any lap pools in Kunming?
Cheers

China Mobile has better network coverage than China Unicom but they're both fairly bad in terms of the services they offer and are both 2nd Generation. China keeps delaying its 3G launch every few months and the rest of the world will probably be using 4G before China gets there. There are a multitude of different SIM cards and different tariffs. If you want a pre pay (topup card) one that works all over China and can do international calls or texts you're best off with Shenzhouxing but then there are many different types of those. I've always found it difficult to find a shenzhouxing that can do both international texts and calls. you're probably better off sticking with texts as there are plenty of other considerably cheaper ways of making internationals calls (the China Mobile rate is expensive).
If you're planning to stick around in Kunming for a while then the best bet is quanquitong (GoTone) which is a like a contract rather than topup cards. You'll need to go to a China Mobile office with your passport and sign up for a contract but then you get much better deals which include a certain number of minutes and GPRS megabytes per month. You can either pay at a China Mobile office each month in cash or can get the account connected to a Chinese bank card and then just check your bill online.