The entrance fees are and will be a concern for national tourists though I don't really know if Yunnan's direct competitors are charging similar sky rocketing ticket prices or not. Furthermore Kunming is going to get passed by as a stopover for tourists now that nearly every area worth visiting in Yunnan has an airport and frankly I can't blame tourists for not including Kunming in their plans.

This place might still be a decent place to live and work but honestly, what is there to see around here for a tourist? The Stone Forest it the only one think I can think about but there are karst formations all over Southern China, many of which are nicer and cheaper to visit than the one near Kunming. In 5 years Chinese tourists will fly into Shangri-La, take a bus or train to Lijiang, fly from there to Tengchong, then they'll fly to Jinhong (or whatever Sipsangpanna's main city is called) and from there they'll go back home. Kunming's tourist industry is pretty much fxcked and the hiked up fees all over Yunnan will ensure that no one ever comes back to visit.

Furthermore I think we all have a feeling that not only do we get screwed over when we want to visit the scenic spots but also that the money we have to cough up end up in the wrong pockets, or at least will be spent on anything else than preserving the natural beauty of the blah blah blah that every area claim.

First chance to watch some live footie in more than 2 years and it's on a Friday where I can't go. :(

Yet another hypocrite fundamentalist Christian succumbs to his inner homosexual. Loudmouth overcompensating in public equals schadenfreude when caught. I like the Shanghaiist's no-nonsense story on the whole deal.

"Looks like: good judgement, self control, integrity, healthy relationships, communication skills with parents, resisting peer pressure, and respecting yourself and others, are good topics to bring to high schoolers!"

I agree. My point is that these values can easily be taught without the influence of a religious group claiming some sort of god given patent on them.

The FOTF refer to itself as fundamentalist Christian. While I shake my head at all the different religions I reserve the right to step it up a notch and use nutjob for people who are fundamentalists (here in the sense of taking the ramblings in the bible literally as facts and truths).

"Nurturing and defending the God-ordained institution of the family and promoting biblical truths worldwide." is FOTF's official mission.

One could of course argue that the family is a natural development in human evolution since we in order to function efficiently as upright bi-pedal beings developed a narrow birth canal hence our offspring needed to be born early before the skull grew too large. Ergo we had to devote lots of resources from both father and mother to allow the child to develop sufficiently to take care of itself. Bingo,, the family was born, but let's save that discussion for some other day.

Now I wonder what the -supposedly atheist- central government in Beijing has to say when Hu and Wen discover that Yunnan has let fundamentalist Christian nutjobs influence the educational system.

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"A professor at Yunnan University's student counseling center told Global Times that young women should not have sex prior to marriage.

"If a girl had sex with her boyfriend, she would become mentally dependent on the boy," Yang said. "It would do no good for her studies and daily life."

-Why don't you just mind your own damn business professor Yang? Who gave you the right to morally lecture people and dictate how they live their lives and what exactly qualifies you to do such a thing? Nice sexist view towards women you display by the way. Obviously females are incapable of thinking for themselves so you and other fools like you have to do it for them. How the hell can this guy be allowed to teach at a university??

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Some dumb sheep said on Yunnan.cn:

"This way of thinking is very good. Old Master Confucius said as much more than 2,000 years ago. But this step comes a little late, now only using educational materials won't get the job done, things like the internet, television and movies must be controlled."

I wouldn't even know where to begin with this one.