Forums > Study > Yunnan University vs. Yunnan Nationalities University Yunnan University of Nationalities is so-so...most of the foreign students studying there are either from Thailand or Laos, in the case of the Thai students, most of them are there on a 2 year program learning Chinese to become Chinese teachers back home. There are probably no more than 5 western students in the whole university, so keep that in mind unless of course you'd prefer to make friends from these regional countries and of course with Chinese students instead.
The dorms at YUN also suck badly, although the foreigner's dorms are marginally better than the Chinese student's dorms. Still, the construction of new apartments behind the dorms often goes on at night as well, so if you do want to study there, choose the new campus, though the disadvantages would be distance from the city, as the new campus is located in Chenggong, on the outskirts of greater Kunming and entertainment, food and even transport options are quite limited, though the university does operate regular buses to the city campus for free.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Cable TV in Kunming Anyone know a good company to get cable TV service from? I am talking about a provider that offers the usual English language stations that you get in SE Asia and all over the world, including CNN, BBC, National Geographic, Discovery Channel etc. as well as presumably Chinese language ones. Any idea about costs, contractual obligations etc.?
Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming sucks the life out of me... Forget Chinese food in Kunming...it's mostly just peas or corn on a plate, much like western food but just served in a different way, and cooked in peanut oil rather than vegetable or olive oil...that's the only difference.
Whatever happened to dim sum and kung pao chicken? You know, the good stuff? Anyway, you can find plenty of great Chinese food in Kunming (cross-the-bridge noodles and hot pot) and of course foreign food. You don't ever have to touch Chinese food if you don't want to, so I don't see the point of complaining about it given you can just eat foreign food (pizzas, burgers, pasta, sushi, Thai and Indian food etc.) everyday. Or make it yourself at home.
Forums > Living in Kunming > What's it going to be like? I agree with all these comments, though I HATE those stares. They may be curious, but it is rude and ignorant to stare for any length of time. I can understand watching a crime scene or a traffic accident for a length of time but not a person. A quick glance might be OK, but imagine if we stared at someone back home. Most likely we'd end up with a black eye.
If people are curious, they should just come up to us and talk...there's nothing more intimidating and uncomfortable than some jackass staring with his eyeballs half way outside their sockets and then going away or some other asshole saying hellooooo!! thinking that's even remotely funny (it's not...get a life and find out what real humor is all about).
I'm wondering what your experiences have been so far xuqiu19. Hopefully positive and I sincerely hope that your experiences have not been too bad...unfortunately this country still has a long way to go to achieve racial equality.
Forums > Living in Kunming > People wanting to learn Spanish... it's ok as a hobby on the side, but obviously it makes more sense to go to a country where that language is actually used, otherwise you won't make much progress.
Riding into Kunming's future
Posted byThere's a flight from Kunming to Beirut? Wow...
Changshui Airport set to debut
Posted bySome airlines, particularly international ones like THAI have not updated their systems to reflect the new airport. At the beginning, starting tomorrow, I'm sure there will be some passengers that won't know about the change and will thus go to the wrong airport and miss their flights.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
Posted byYeah the Lijiang line is currently under construction, while the Ruili line is supposed to form part of a proposed Kunming-Myanmar rail link - it will probably also be constructed at some stage (as reported by GoKM last year) but I suspect it will take a little while.
Yunnan goes infrastructure crazy
Posted byAll of this is quite amazing, but even in China not everything goes to plan. Originally the proposed high speed railway from Kunming to Vientiane, Laos via Jinghong and Boten was supposed to be completed by 2015, but a number of issues will likely push back that project for another 10 or more years, though I do believe that it will eventually be built. Also, since the idea is to link south-western China with the south-east Asian coast, Thai and eventually Malaysian and Singaporean co-operation is vital to building this link in the first place; building a line only as far as Vientiane would likely turn out to be a white elephant project since the objective is to make most income from moving goods between SE Asia and SW China quickly via train rather than passengers and that requires linking SW China to a coastline - something which Laos doesn't have.
Regarding the Hekou line, they've been proposing that one for years now since trains stopped running between Kunming and Hekou in 2002. Finally this article mentions a new high-speed line is under construction, but this will be of little use unless the Vietnamese also build a complementary high-speed line on their side (sure, they already have an existing railway line running from Lao Cai via Hanoi down to Saigon, but it's rather slow). Also, the Vietnamese government recently turned down a proposal for converting their existing line into a high-speed line, citing the high cost and the low passenger volumes that would utilize the line.
Changshui Airport set to debut
Posted byWow, it's finally upon us. The new airport will finally open at the end of this month! Only thing is, I'd avoid non-essential travel in and out of this airport for the first couple of weeks since it will probably be more chaotic than usual and things may not go as planned (for example baggage claim may be unusually slow).
I like the statement "For travelers without cars, taxis are always an option." well of course they are. For starters, most people in Kunming still don't own a car despite all the cars on the roads these days. Secondly, even if you do have a car, who would drive to the airport in order to catch a flight and then park their car for the duration of their overseas or interprovincial stay there? I don't think long-term parking is well known in China so even a week's worth of parking could become very expensive and possibly more expensive than even in some western countries.
I am looking forward to the proposed direct Europe flights. Anyone have any idea about when these flights might begin and who which carriers will offer service (presumably Chinese carriers I would imagine)?