Thanks. Tiger, I'll remember this thread and take you up on your word in about a month or two :) Take-over is in the beginning of April so we'll spend the next couple of months trying to scrape some cash together first.
I'm gonna semi-hijack this thread for a bit: We're getting a new apartment in a few months -the empty, bare concrete shell kind- and we've begun looking at how much it would cost to do it up. Do any of you guys who've been through the same have a rough estimate on how much, say, a bathroom or a kitchen should be budgeted at? We're probably aiming for the regular not-too-shabby-but-not-exactly-luxury approach. For reference, it's a standard 131 sqm, 3 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 2 balconies deal. Anything really would help, I've had people tell me it can be done for 8 wan and others who refuse to believe it's doable for less than 30, so yeah, rather confusing.
Buffet places in China often have sizeable discounts in the form of VIP cards where you have to buy 10,20 or more tickets. Many "5" star hotels offer this. We usually buy a stack every month at either a nice hotel restaurant nearby: normal price 138, 20 tickets for 998 but they have to be used within a month or at the local golf club 998 for 15, same 30 days deal. Either way, if you go to any place and get 2 meat and 3 veggie dishes, it's often 100 yuan or more. Here you get better quality, nice surroundings, 40-50 dishes to shovel from as well as juice/soft drinks/beer included as well as cakes/pastries and ice cream. It's really a no-brainer if you can find a good place with a decent discount system.
@Arabic:
",,there are not any Muslim missionaries in China at all. Never happened and will never."
Sorry, but that's an outright lie or at least extremely naive thinking.
@Ocean:
"If you genuinely believe that God has called you to witness to folk who would otherwise end up in an eternity in Hell, then technicalities such as legality, how you obtain a visa and how you attract individuals with whom you can share your faith are not critical issues. You do what you have to, to save souls."
Sounds like a plausible excuse for Islamic terrorists as well. I know what you're trying to say, I just don't buy into the basic reasoning as being objectively acceptable. That said, as a committed anti-theist, I never back down from a good discussion :)
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The comment from Chris had deserved a wider audience. Beluga?
Went there yesterday and it totally made my week. Nice decor and friendly staff and a real salad bar. Sadly we both wanted mexican food so I can't really say much about their other courses. The food was great but just a tad spicier would have improved the dish. The best thing was that we almost had the place to ourselves and we could have a quiet conversation without shouting, spitting Chinese people in the background. I realised how much I had missed that since coming here.
We went to Chicago Coffee a couple of days ago and it was a nice experience. The place is cozy with soft comfy chairs (I realized how much I have missed one since coming here) and they have a nice little collection of English language books in the corner consisting mainly of classics and travel litterature. I was looking forward to trying their advertized tortilla bar but it wasn't up and running that evening.
Instead we went for 2 12 inch pizzas -roast chicken and pepperoni- but we quickly realized that 1 would have been enough. Those things are heavy. I am mainly into Italian style pizza but Chicago's double layered pizzas are well worth a try. Their coffee seems to be a bit on the expensive side but people say good things about it and they have got a nice selection. I wouldn't mind dropping by again some day,, hopefully when they've got the tortilla thing going. English speaking staff btw.
Yunnan news roundup
Posted byI assume this test only involved a very limited amount of traffic since the North-South traffic in Kunming today was worse than imaginable. Cool that the IMAX is ready to go. They are awesome.
Yunnan news roundup
Posted by260 yuan?! Ridiculous.
I've had a phone stolen in 61 myself. Kinda had me reconsider my previous stand on people beating up thieves. I don't know how to spot all the kinds of thieves but I am getting better at it. The more pro kind usually work in pairs. They are probably somewhere between 18 and 25 yo and never wear a bag. They usually try to blend in with darkish casual clothes. Be aware if you see two guys waiting for the bus who clearly know eachother but when they enter one goes to the back and the other stays at the front.
I'd love to see you punch one of those guys if you detect them but the Chinese say that most of them carry knives so it might be better to play it cool. Anyway you never know if the thief has a partner in the bus who is prepared to help him (the main reason he is there is to create confusion and loudly vouch for a detected partner in crime - just enough to have time for the bus to reach the next stop).
Another kind my gf has encountered a couple of times is the single elderly man or woman with one arm covered by a jacket. They'll move close to you and try to fish something out of your bag or pockets with the hidden hand, pretending to have bumped into you by mistake if discovered.
Kunming's chengguan suffering image problems
Posted byAlthough the way the chengguan are going about their business can sometimes be questionable they actually have important work to do. Who are we to say that there should be no regulations for streetvendors and snacksellers and no reinforcement of the law? There are hundreds -if not thousands- of streets in Kunming designated for late night street food but one of the problems is that the popular streets get filled up completely and no cars (and hence no emergency vehicles) can pass. That's not even mentioning the "quality" of the food that the amount of competition just keeps lowering.
We all know that a law not enforced here in China is no law at all so lets get a more qualified and well trained cheng guan to get things rolling.
Hu visits Yunnan stressing importance of ethnic unity
Posted by"While in Yao'an, Hu inspected rubble from this month's earthquake. Hu agreed that it was in fact rubble thereby ending a week long standoff between rubble supporters and rubble deniers in the area."
Kunming warily hosting postponed academic conference
Posted byThey have recently tightened up the rules for in which hotels foreigners can stay as well. I actually ran into a psb officer at one of the hotels I tried to book at. He said the tightening of procedures were to protect us mentioning Xinjiang and Uighurs and stuff like that.