At first I thought it was a fluke, but now I realize its a constant fact. This happens ONLY here - noplace else. Can anybody shed some light?

Not true for me. Underpants take half the time of jeans. Is it your drying placement, perchance? Fascinating topic.

Are you wetting your underpants daily or something?

Ha.Ha. Try buying some adult diapers. Should work.

Having removed detergent and drying technique from the equation, through a painstaking process of elimination, only two factors remain: the washing machine, and the water. The washing machine is a top-loader, is it possible that this type doesn't perform well enough to thoroughly saturate the coarse denim? As for the water, well..how is it in Kunming? Could it be too "hard" to adequately penetrate thicker materials?

I used to have the same problem! Are your underpants made from an unprocessed hemp and Lycra blend by chance ????

Unprocessed hemp sounds like something people use to smoke?

This is why Kunming is a great place. You can wake up and read titles like this.

Interesting. It may have something to do with the different materials of your jeans and underpants.

Maybe your jeans aren't 100% denim?