This is from an ex-pats view, but anyone welcome to chime in.

How do you compare the pros and cons of living in Kunming to other cities?

Chengdu? Qingdao? Xiamen? Nanjing? etc.
Or the big 3 (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou)
And how about versus cities in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, etc?

I would say that Kunming is less snobby than some of the big 3, as well as having cleaner air, and easier access to outdoors and small towns.

It is also less expensive. That said, it is way more boring and isolated.
I guess I would say it is less friendly than the big 3 as far as people being comfortable with foreigners and people being social with strangers on a deeper level (conservative here), but still more friendly in other ways.

Compared to Chengdu, people here are more scared of or deal less with outsiders (including Chinese outsiders), and the ex-pat community is smaller, less jobs, worse food,and it has less resources.
But I would still rate Kunming higher because of superior weather, less sprawl, less air pollution, and a bit more spirit in the people.

The main issues I would warn prospective expats about here would be lack of job opportunities/low pay, ugly architecture (except green lake area etc.), all the normal china issues, and general boredom.

But I would recommend this place to people who really value good weather, manageable level of urban sprawl, slow pace of life, moderate cost of living, and would like to know more about ethnic minorities.

I was in Hong Kong a few weeks back for the first time after 2 years in Kunming. It was really strange seeing drivers obey the laws of the road and not use their horns every 2 seconds as a method of moving traffic.

I lived in Saigon for about two years. When i moved to Kunming it felt like i was coming back to civilization again. Now having said that, i stayed in kunming for about half a year and when i went to renew my visa in hong kong i had the same feeling about moving back to a civilized world. Tomorrow, i will be heading back to canada and i know that everything will be as it should be again.

I guess you can get used to any condition and after a while you just think everything is normal until you head back to a more developed city. Then you realize how horrible your conditions really were.

Back to canada... Horray for personal freedoms again. Of all the diffrences in east vs west, freedom has to be the biggest thing to affect you daily life. Followed closely my hygene/cleaniess of the city.

On freedom, in canada i never had any remotely bad feelings towards the government officials and actually like the police. I really felt that they were there to help and to serve. In china, lets just say that they are not the most helpful. Losing face and/or having a good time is much more important than helping someone in need. That is unless you can help them out with their monthly wages. So much counterfits. I am addicted to cola but eventually stopped drinking it except at mcdonalds because nine out of tem time you just buy fake coke. FAKE COKE. Really!. In vietnam, well, it is just a free for all. Open joke is that the triad rides around on white bike with police written on them. Blatent raising cost on every item down to a bowl of soup to the point that it is the only country i have to ask the price of everything before i buy. What is mind boggling is that the same shop I go to everyday i have to ask the prices for the same items i buy. Also, don't get your bike fixed by the locals in vietnam. If you can find a foreign mechanic, use them. Even if it means you will be paying much more. At least you know the repair will be okay. Whereas if you get a local fix your bike i guarantee it will break down one kilometer down the road. This includes fixing flats. Tried over thirty diffrent mechanics over two years and the result was the same; if the bike rolls away from the shop okay then they don't care. I am not mechanically inclined but eventually learned to repair my own bike out of necessity and fear of breaking down.

Having lived in vietnam and china I realize that common courtesy and common deacentcy is not that common in these areas. On first glance it all seems okay but once you stay for a while you really see the true face of its inhabitants.

Side note, i used to be a very happy go lucky guy back in canada. In fact, a lot of my friends confide in me during their dark hours so i could cheer them up. After two years in vietnam my friends asked what happened to me. I seem always to be in a bad mood. That is when i knew i had to leave vietnam. It was just sucking the life out of me. Traveling around china brought my mood up again.

On cleaniness. In vietnam, people just go number one and two anywhere. In China, children go anywhere. In canada, unless their drunk, you rarely see people urinating and only dogs go number two in the open. Even then it is looked after by the owner.

Garbage. In vietnam it is thrown everywhere. In china, at least, it is grouped into piles. But then they leave it out overnight to pick up in the morning. Why not do that at night no you don't attract so much rats! Coming from a former "cleanest city in The world" it is quite a change.

Sorry for my long winded rant but is was good to let a little steam off. I am sure many will disagree with me but i must add that in all three countries i lived as a local would. Meaning i rented a regular house and ate at local eateries. I did not stay at the tourist traps, lived in hotels or ate at upscale resturants.

So in conclusion, great places to visit but dont stay very long.

@Sgnguy
I'm in Canada right now, leaving tomorrow to head for Hong Kong, then back to Kunming. After almost two years in Kunming this feels incredibly cold over here!

A few minutes ago I met a guy out on the street (while cleaning the leaves on the lawn) who had lived in Vietnam for a few years. He wants to go back! Obviously every place has some kind of charm for somebody.

If I had the money to live anywhere I wanted my short list would be either Honolulu or Bridgetown, Barbados. Unfortunately my finances are limited.

I feel a lot of what sgnguy is saying as far as his criticisms of asian cities. These kind of deep problems and also all the inconveniences can weigh on you. At the same time, as AllPage said, it is a matter of personal taste and of priorities.

For example, I for one totally despise central and western Canada (anglo Canada) as the most culturally barren, socially cold, spiritless, stingy, and generally boring places. I have been (particularly Vancouver). People there may have more freedom, but it seems to me that they do nothing with it. In fact, people immigrate there from all over the world, every language and background is represented. But they seem to just kind of leave it all behind when they immigrate, trading it in for exciting activities such as shopping, aerobics, watching tv and walking their dogs.

More than that I found communication in Canada hard to navigate, kind of passive aggressive, like in some parts of Asia. Sorry, to be so blunt but it just goes to show that "one man's treasure..." etc
That said, I am sure that if you fell down on the street in any Canadian city, people would help you without a second thought.

Kunming consists of an old, previously walled city, a modern commercial district, residential and university areas. The city has an astronomical observatory, and its institutions of higher learning include Yunnan University, Yunnan Normal University and a medical college. On the outskirts is a famed bronze temple, dating from the Ming dynasty.

@AlPage

funny, alot of people from Barbados move to Canada :)

@sgnguy, I am about to embark on moving in the opposite direction, namely from Kunming to Vietnam, but not Saigon, but rather another nice city in southern Vietnam.

I have been to Vietnam around 20 times, most recently for business, which has culminated in a new job opportunity here. I first came to Vietnam (Saigon) around 7 years before I came to China (Kunming) for the first time and despite the horrible traffic and poor infrastructure, I still feel that Vietnam, like its other South-East Asian counterparts (Myanmar is an exception) is a much easier place for an expat to live than China, particularly compared to a lesser known city such as Kunming.

In spite of China's infrastructure being quite good, in fact China these days looks more like Europe than it does the rest of Asia (Shanghai's infrastructure, streets etc. are almost indistinguishable from the west), the fact is, China and cities like Kunming are more difficult for foreigners to live in compared to any SE Asian city for the following reasons:

Although Vietnam, Thailand, Laos etc. are more exotic and the lifestyles are quite different to the west as well as to China, those countries are very foreigner friendly and are used to dealing with foreigners - China is generally not used to foreigners at all (Shanghai and Beijing are exceptions). English (and sometimes other foreign languages) are widely spoken in SE Asia (and English language menus in restaurants are available in most places, not just a handful as in Kunming), international credit cards can be used almost everywhere and there is never a question about foreign credit cards being acceptable; if credit cards can be used to pay for goods or services, then naturally foreign issued ones can be used too, unlike in mainland China. Also, there are large and visible expat communities and foreign travellers present in these countries, something not particularly visible in Kunming or most other Chinese cities. Finally, there are plenty more reasons but there is also a lot more western and other international food available in SE Asian cities compared to Kunming.

@sgnguy, I feel that knowing the local language, even if it's only a little can help enormously. In Thailand and Laos I feel very happy and confident due to my language skills in those countries, however, in Vietnam it's different as I speak no more than a few unconnected words of Vietnamese, so I have to rely on friends or English, which works in the bigger cities but not in the countryside. In China, things are improving for me as my Chinese improves and I expect to move back to China in the future, but anyway, language does help a lot as I feel much more connected with the people and place where I know the local language - which is why I still don't have a strong attachment to Vietnam for example.

Going back to the original topic for a moment.

I lived in Shanghai for 4 years before moving to smaller cities. I now live in Kunming.

I like to visit Shanghai and there is a lot more to do there. More for expats: work, play, shopping for clothes that fit. Prices for a lot of expat things have come down a lot in Shanghai and prices in Kunming have gone up. Apart from housing and taxis the costs of living are similar. However, salaries in Shanghai, even for teaching, are much higher.

However, I have lived in a number of cities across the world that had a big 'culture scene' and to be honest, I rarely used the theatres and cultural venues.

Air quality in Kunming is getting worse, but is still much better than Shanghai. I live by the lake and get better air.

Kunming's expats also have a feeling of community, although it would be nice to do something not bar related. Shanghai expats are more isolated.

I feel safe in both Kunming and Shanghai, by comparison I never felt safe in Shanzhen.

Shanghai has been likened to New York, and Yunnan to Mississippi. The pace of life is different. If you want everything done pronto, choose the big three cities. If you are more laid back, Kunming may suit you better.

Shanghai is big, and getting out of the city to enjoy the countryside is not practical. The surrounding geography is flat coastal plains and you need to travel for more than an hour to see anything. Although there are some ancient water towns around Shanghai, and Suzhou (see it in a day) is close. Shanghai is also much more crowded than Kunming.

Kunming is not a city of great interest, but it is a spring-board to many tourist destinations. And there are mountains on three sides of the city that provide nice vistas. There are also several lakes within an hour of the city centre. Dianchi Lake is polluted, but this is algae, not factory run off. Most of the lake is pleasant to walk alongside. And you can escape the crowds of the city.

One big difference is altitude. Kunming is 1900m (6000 ft) above sea level. Unless you are super fit you will notice this. Perhaps one reason why the pace of life is slower here.

One point that was raised on understanding the language. The Chinese seem noisy, but I recently visited Wales. When people spoke Welsh around me it was, to me, just unintelligible noise. To me, at the moment, Chinese is still just noise. As I understand more of the language, I will feel less bombarded by noise, I am sure.