"About 30, Chinese and with unkept hair".

Well, that narrows it down.

Despite all the progress, China is still in many aspects a 3rd world country. In my area I've been to every provider, looked at every packet available and no matter what, it's just not possible to get faster internet since there are restrictions on private users and every single Chinese person streams shows and movies and you share the old cables with them. What's more, these days more and more Chinese people buy internet and TV in one, which means there's even more pressure on the many bottlenecks. Last year I was so desperate that I spent some guanxi on getting a commercial line (expensive stuff had it gone through, but worth it) but when they tested the copper, it turned out it just wasn't possible.

"If you get free housing and tuition, 3500 is enough to live like a duke or at least a lowly baron..." I'm sorry but that's just incorrect. I DO understand your points and I'm not talking Partying-like-there's-no-tomorrow+eating-Western-food-constantly. If you want to eat Western food maybe 2-3 times a month and go out once or twice, need to stock up a little on cheese, bacon, mayo and such from time to time (nothing extravagant) then 3500 isn't going to get you very far. All the things you touch upon where you skimp and save, well, that's what you don't have to do at all if you're on the more regular teacher salary around these parts for newbies: 5-6000+ including 1 or 2 one-on-one kids. It's actually not that difficult pulling that number above 10.000 and then we can begin talking nobility.

I'd say you'd be close to the "scraping by" standard of living. That said, I believe many of us who came to China were stuck on a lowly income for the first year. Most people find ways to double or triple that if they choose to stay longer. I don't recommend working in the public school system though. Your hourly pay is usually in the range of 30-40 yuan and that sucks. There'll be plenty of office hours, correcting homework and preparation so you'll be quite busy until you get the hang of it. You should be able to find a private ESL school paying almost double the 3500 these days for a lot less work. Either way you can supplement your income by tutoring.

Kunming is not in a particular dangerous situation anyway. The high number of small, barely detectable by humans, and small-to-medium sized quakes like the ones you'll feel in tall buildings and sometimes at ground level, keep the pressure from building up to massive quake dimensions. Sure, it could still happen but there shouldn't be anything suggesting imminent +7 risk. I read somewhere that the number of small to medium sized quakes in Yunnan amount to some 4000 a year. That's a good thing.