User profile: Yuanyangren

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Is living in China hazardous to your health?

Hmm...I don't find China noisy at all. Sure, there are many impatient drivers who constantly blast their horns, but the lack of motorcycles, mopeds and inconsiderate idiots that blast their stereos at 5am is a sure sign China is a lot quieter than neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, where people are seemingly oblivious to all that noise.

Unless you are used to living in North Dakota or something, Kunming and China in general are quiet enough; it's rarely noisy in a housing estate where most people live.

Try Vietnam for a while...it's absolutely horrible. The people get up at 5am (to do what?!), they blast their stereos with good morning Vietnam banter, some horrible music, whizz past on their scooters and mopeds all day long (hardly any Vietnamese own cars), the trucks in Vietnam have the craziest horns in the world and the whole place stays noisy until about 9 or 10pm at night. It doesn't necessarily become quiet at night either, just quieter. China is much more civilized by comparison.

Air pollution? Well, Kunming's air quality seems OK to me; I don't think the air quality in Ho Chi Minh City with it's 11 million mopeds could be any better than that of Kunming. Just some food for thought.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Problems with China Eastern Airlines

Which is why it's usually worth paying a bit extra to fly with a reliable airline! Airline safety is not an issue to play around with, so some careful consideration about who you are flying with and their standards of service makes a HUGE difference. I personally only fly with Star Alliance carriers and a few others and I never make any exceptions for any reasons. For example, flying THAI between Kunming and Bangkok and Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City is always worth it. I will never fly Air Asia because firstly, their ticket prices are often not any cheaper than THAI and once you add on the extra baggage charges, it may even be more expensive than THAI! Also, I have been able to fly for free many times even business class with THAI a privelege you won't get with Air Asia.

While I think that China Eastern is a perfectly safe airline to fly with and I found their service to be OK (on domestic flights; I have never flown with them internationally), why don't you just fly with say, Cathay Pacific? They offer very cheap flights via Hong Kong from Kunming to Toronto and Vancouver.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Renting a car to see Yunnan independently

I've also been to Dongchuan numerous times always by car...takes about 2.5-3 hours, god knows how many by bus. Driving yourself (or with a driver if necessary) will allow you to see as much as possible in as short a time as possible. 2 weeks in Yunnan just using land-based public transport is possible, but it won't allow you to see everything - you'll either need more time or your own transport...Yunnan is quite a big province and away from the expressways it takes a long time to get anywhere.

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I'm surprised his car was still driveable and didn't end up with a zillion dents (or maybe it did). I wouldn't dare drive like that knowing that damaging my car is almost certain if I were to attempt that and secondly I have more regard for the safety of pedestrians than this bozo did.

Still, this was an entertaining piece of news.

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Yep...though I'm more used to getting hassled than ignored. I thought we were all walking atms to these guys! Haha...anyway, it really depends though, because those taxi drivers that constantly pester you in places like Vietnam often rip you off, but if you go for the ones that are not specifically looking for fares they'll actually use the meters. Of course, taxis are better than motorcycle taxis though since they are less likely to rip you off. Also, you can almost always find a taxi or something else when you need one in those countries, even during rush hour. Something that's hard to do in Kunming and even Shanghai...

Also, apart from the occassional three-wheeled scooter or electric scooter driver willing to drive you somewhere, there are few alternative forms of transport in Kunming apart from the standard forms you'd see in the west: buses and taxis (and eventually, a subway). Only on the outskirts of town will you find motorcycle taxis who congregate around tourist spots such as the Nationalities Village, but these guys don't pick up fares inside town, probably because they aren't allowed to, I presume.

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What i find that's totally bizarre to me is that in a developing country like China, no taxi driver follows a foreigner like would happen in neighboring Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia or elsewhere. In those countries, you don't look for the taxis, they look for you! In Kunming and China in general, you can walk down the street and no taxi driver will ever stop for you unless you want them to.

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Tell the people to look at the signs and see what their reaction is! If they don't react, tell them that they can't read (which is what I would assume, if someone was just so oblivious to a sign right above their head).

Reviews

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Horrible tasteless, thick-crusted "cardboard" like pizzas that are a far cry from what they should be like. Way overpriced too. Wine may be good, but why bother when the nearby Prague Cafe makes much better pizza at a more reasonable price?

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Great Mexican food and ice cream, excellent Raspberry smoothies and an overall good atmosphere. Can't do much about the low ceilings on the second floor, but the early closing time could be adjusted, after all, the nearby French Cafe closes at 1am.