@smiletome, I believe they tend to eat either lajiao coated kaorou or barbecued meats, mixian or spicy rice noodles (which we now know that BillDan is not very fond of) then again, neither am I though I am able to eat them occassionally as a light lunch or snack, or guoqiaomian or cross the bridge noodles, which can be surprisingly good. However, do try to only frequent brothers jiang or a similar chain as they presumably employ higher hygiene standards than local eateries (and since you are cooking your own ingredients in broth you don't have to worry about re-used oil).

Although they do become a bit boring after a while (and not healthy either if eaten too often), but undoubtedly western fast food chains such as McDonald's and KFC, as well as sit down pizza restaurants such as Pizza Hut and Papa John's surely employ international hygiene and food safety standards. You can't go wrong eating occassionally at these places. Or you could always shell out like $10 for a ham and cheese croissant from Starbucks. I didn't mention Burger King or a host of other international chains as I don't think you'll find them in Kunming (at least I haven't seen any) though Burger King has some outlets in Shanghai and Guangzhou (and probably Beijing too, though I haven't been to Beijing so I don't know).

What I don't understand are some of the exorbitant prices they charge for western or any other imported food in Kunming. It's almost as if retailers are reluctant to sell international food, but have to, because in an international economy you can't just sell your products and not buy anything yourself (or at least something like that). For example, Kambly cookies from Switzerland cost an exorbitant 85 Yuan at Nanpingje, which is like $13 and probably about the most expensive in the world. By comparison, the same cookies cost about 99 Baht or just over $3 in Bangkok and about 60,000 dong or $3 in Ho Chi Minh City. Exactly how that extra $10 price tag is justified I don't know.

If you look around, there is a decent variety of international food or just plain old imported food (i.e. milk from Australia, New Zealand or Germany) which tastes better and is not tainted like some local milk has been. Sure, it's about 15-18 Yuan per 1L bottle, or about $2-2.50, which gets you at least 2L of milk back home, but it's either that or potentially dangerous and just plain disgusting tasting Chinese milk, which I can't drink because of it's awful aftertaste.

Once you round up your breakfast cereals, curry pastes, cookies, Thai rice (the local rice is inedible) or occassionally Indian or Pakistani Basmati rice, cheeses etc. that leaves local and imported fruits and vegetables, which are actually very cheap in most cases (well the local fruit and veg anyway). I usually go for chicken or fish as my choice of meats since Yunnan beef tastes pretty weird. All in all, it can get a bit pricey but like many locals, due to my discerning palate you have to spend in order to buy decent food. Sure, it always ends up being around $50 every time I go shopping, but I just imagine I'm in Bangkok or Sydney or LA and then I forget just how much I really spent.

I've met some interesting people at the English corner next to the green lake, although I've also met some annoying people who ask the same old boring questions. Everytime you go it's a bit different, but in general I only go about once every 3 months or when I'm feeling in the mood and have time. Since there are a lot of people there, once it gets interesting you may find yourself losing track of time and before you know it, there are still 20 people around you and it's 11pm.

It's more interesting for everyone if you bring along a friend or two, although what tends to happen is that a group of locals will crowd around each foreigner, meaning that there ends up being a circle of like 10 locals smiling and waiting for the foreigner to speak. Each person then asks a question and the conversation really starts. If the conversation is dull (about half the time) you excuse yourself and move to another group, or just leave. Otherwise, you can find yourself being ping-ponged between different people.

Oh, and steer clear of the train driver that repeats everything you say under his breath. That guy is a bit creepy.

There is an article right here on gokunming.com about different construction projects in Yunnan, one of which is the train line from Kunming to Hekou on the Vietnamese border. Once complete, it will be possible to travel by train from Kunming to Ho Chi Minh City via Lao Cai and Hanoi (although that's a long haul).

A friend of mine worked on the rehabilitation of the Cambodian line from the Thai border towards Phnom Penh. Steady progress means that line could be open within the next 2-3 years or so. Finally, a missing link from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh, a distance of only 220km by road and probably similar by rail would complete a rail link from Europe via Russia, Mongolia and China to Singapore via Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia although very little of it is high-speed rail for now. Still, incomes in Vietnam and Cambodia in particular are many years away from affordability for high speed options, which is why the Vietnamese government recently rejected a plan to build a high-speed rail link from Saigon to Hanoi and beyond. Thus completing an overland rail link, even if it's not high-speed is the best option for this part of the world for now.

Haha...what a post! I wouldn't be surprised if half the male prostitutes in Kunming were Thai (given the large number of Thai men that are either gay, have had sex changes and/or are engaged in this scene), rather than local Chinese though. Ask around if you're into that scene, I'm certainly not.