User profile: bluppfisk

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Strange characters in Chinese software

Ouyang, that's it! I never thought it could be a windows version compatibility problem. Running Pipi in compatibility mode solved all the weird character problems, wonder if it will also deal with the locale problem. Cheers!

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Strange characters in Chinese software

Hey,

Thanks for you answer. But I said the ??? had already been resolved. They're not the problem. The process you describe is what I'd done before: setting the system locale to Simplified Chinese (PRC). I have rebooted after and indeed most of the menus don't show any more ???.

However, programs will still display text bits (not as much in menu elements as in text elements, such as the user agreements during software installation) that looks like the following gibberish: "ÌÒ»¨Ð¡ÃÃ".

Not sure how to fix that.

fisken

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Strange characters in Chinese software

One for the geeks out there:

Chinese software on my computer (Win7, Chinese language support installed, system locale set to Chinese Simplified (PRC)) still shows some weird text. The question marks instead of Chinese characters were eliminated by switching the system locale to Chinese.

Yet, software such as Pipi player will still show things like "ÌÒ»¨Ð¡ÃÃ" which are absolutely incomprehensible to me. Why isn't it showing Chinese characters?

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Retiring in Kunming or Lijiang

First some advice.

* Kunming is quickly dropping in air quality standard and the weather is not always nice (often cold for lack of indoor heating). I wouldn't come live here if your health were bad.

* If you have any eye problem, be advised that Kunming is at an altitude of 1900m which may make your eyes deteriorate more quickly

* It is still China. Not exactly a comfortable place to live, but nevertheless interesting. I don't know whether you've been to China or not.

1) No, not really. You can however start studying and get a student visa, start a business and get a business visa or marry a local and get a residence permit.

2) Yes

3) Yes, some people have successfully done this before you, but bear in mind that it is getting increasingly competitive and your customer base may also expect you to do a bit more

4) I don't know about buying, but 10000 RMB (1250 EUR) a year will get you a flat for one person/a couple somewhere not too central.

5) Any place in China is changing very quickly at the moment. Can you deal with that?

Lijiang will typically have better air, lower prices (outside the old town of course), but also colder winters and even higher altitude. If you are at a retirement age, and haven't lived all your life at 2600m+, the sparsity of the air may get you in trouble.

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I believe that being part of WTO means that you cannot tax the hell out of private cars.

Look at Vietnam: a two-wheeled paradise until WTO forces them to lower tax on imported cars, which means everyone is going to start driving their cars which means that paradise is going to hell in a handbasket.

So don't blame China alone - blame all members of WTO, the car-producing ones first.

Well here's nothing shocking.

People involved in major (and seemingly unnecessary) construction projects often have dirt on their hands.

- The metro, gobbling up eight years of the city's annual revenue, is IMHO unnecessary (reducing car culture, or an above-ground or elevated bus system would be wiser), slow (elevated systems are faster to build) and expensive (elevated systems are cheaper to build), and even somewhat dangerous (the city is largely built on a mire).

- Changshui, while certainly a better-looking and more modern airport, has been a headache for pretty much anyone. Wujiaba didn't have nearly as many fog issues and transport to the city centre was convenient. Changshui's metro connection hasn't been finished for years.

- My Chinese colleagues say that everyone knows that tree planting is _the_ preferred way to engage in corruption these days. Something about the fluctuating price and the maintenance costs. I'll ask again tomorrow.

Three massive projects that are expensive, only partially necessary, badly planned and where it's easy to use construction delays and unexpected costs as a smokescreen for a wad of cash here and there.

www.worldofnonging.com/2013/11/kunming-in-deep-metro-woes/

Large-scale farming is by no means the answer. The burning of trash is usually because there's no adequate trash collection service. The burning of rice stalks is a problem but not because they don't rotate crops (you don't rotate crops with rice afaik). There would be alternatives to rice stalk burning, as below paper suggests:

www.ijesd.org/papers/318-M00040.pdf

Reviews

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First and last experience. Absolutely horrible. I came in late with a big flesh wound. The doctor sewed it up and told me to come back in the morning "perhaps to redo it, and to change the bandage". When I did come back the next morning, they just changed the bandage and sent me off.

When I peeked at my own wound, I noticed it was horribly done. "Like a vet did the stitches," as someone commented. I then had to stay a night in a different hospital in order to do it right, with a 40% chance of getting infections. This cost me a lot more, thanks to Richland fucking up in the beginning.

Whatever X-rays were taken were not printed out and given to me so I couldn't go to another hospital for a second opinion or treatment.

The nurses didn't seem to know where half the things were and the doctors had to repeat orders to get basic things like scissors.

In the next hospital, it was noticed that I had fractured my jaw in two places. On the five X-Rays taken at Richland, they did not notice the fractures.

Pretty sure these people are not actual doctors and are therefore criminal.

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Super place. Really cool interior, lots of good beers and drinks, fun toilet inside the telephone booth, and an interesting clientele.

Cons: pretty hard to find, no matching glasses for the imported beers, and home brews need some work.

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Teaching and support lamentable.

Four people signed up for the highest-level class and got a teacher who does all the talking, refers to herself as 老师 and makes classes absolutely uninteresting. As of this moment, only 1 person is still going on a regular basis.

While staff is friendly, they are absolutely incapable to help out with visa matters in an adequate way. Lack of information beforehand, lack of support and lack of information during the visa process meant that I am waiting forever for my residence permit to be processed, without any information about why it's taking so long, why they can't get started ... I'd say this school is a good option if all you wanted is a visa, but they can't even handle this properly.

Anyone giving this school a 5-star rating hasn't been to any decently-run schools in Kunming, such as Keats'. The only redeeming quality is facilities and space, those are indeed excellent.

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Have been studying at Keats for almost four semesters now and I'm very enthusiastic about the quality of the teachers and the commitment of the school's staff.

One point of criticism is that I think they could put in some effort to group people of the same level together, rather than base it on who was together in last semester's class.

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I stayed here in the early days of March 2013. Dave and his wife are swell owners, the staff attentive, the food good, rooms in perfect order, WiFi fast enough... Much like the old hump, the entire place is an excellent place to relax and make friends. And that is what you come to do in Dali, after all. The location is a bit isolated from the old town, but nothing is really far away in Dali. Besides, it makes for a better starting point to walk up Cangshan.