Forums > Living in Kunming > Large-size football boots/soccer cleats

Try the top floor of Parksons in the city centre.

Forums > Living in Kunming > laowai motorcycle license/purchase

If you have a motorcycle license in your home country, you only need to take the theory test. (You have to get your foreign license professionally translated into Chinese.) If you take a memory stick to the big traffic police station somewhere out in the southeast of the city, they will give you a copy of the driving test questions in English. There are about 1100 questions and you have to answer 100 multiple choice. The questions are very difficult, many of them nonsensical, so it takes a while to learn them. When you take your test you get two attempts at getting 90%, otherwise you have to rebook and try again another day.

Regarding getting a bike, you can only ride outside the 2nd ringroad. The registration fee for riding inside the 2nd ringroad is enormous, somewhere in the region of fifteen thousand kuai from memory (yes, fifteen thousand!)

If you want anything bigger than 200cc, bikes are very hard to find in the Kunming area. I have seen some, but not many. The ones in the bikes shops I've seen look as if they've been down the road a few times. I'm not even sure if you're legally allowed to ride a big bike in this area. When I tried to buy one I seemed to be dealing with some very dodgy characters.

The whole process of getting a license, a bike, getting it registered, taxed, insured, etc. is quite complicated. I recommend taking a Chinese friend who has been through the process themselves to help you.

Hope this is of some help. It was correct as of December 2007 when I got my bike (Zhongshen 200GS), but as you know, things change here.

Forums > Living in Kunming > DVDs on Wen Hua Xiang

This kind of thing is an absolute travesty of justice. Why should us laowai have to pay more for things, just because we're far, far richer than most people here?
The other day I went to buy an ice-cream from our local shop, and paid 2 kuai. Then I went next door and found they were selling the same product for 1.8 kuai!!! I was outraged! I could have used that 2 mao to pay for somewhere to park my 4000 kuai bike. Now my bike has been stolen. So I strongly recommend all foreigners boycott my local ice-cream shop and use the one next door!

Forums > Food & Drink > Milkshakes

An interesting variation on Wocca's idea would be to buy an ice-cream and ask them to pour milk over it. Of course, you might want to have a cup handy.

Forums > Food & Drink > Milkshakes

Ah, I see, too watery. In that case I have the perfect solution. The Chinese have this magical ingredient called MSG. I believe it stands for Milk Shake Gloop. Just ask them to throw a bit of that in and it should thicken up nicely.