I can't swing myself into a rant of BillDan sized proportions but I do feel what he's saying. Spicy rice-noodles get old fast and when I think back on my 3 years in Kunming, oddly enough all the restaurants I remember were owned and operated by people from other provinces while the Kunming/Yunnanese ones were all the same oily stuff laced with chilli and full of bone, fat and tendons. Best Chinese restaurants I've frequented in Kunming? The Taiwanese ones, a Guangdong place, Xinjiang/Hui noodles/dishes shops and a the few Dongbei places I found along the way. Northern dumplings and baozi are infinitely better than the Yunnan ones filled with a microscopic mix of unidentifiable green stuff and something meat-like which couldn't be sold as dog food in the West. Bai food has its pros but generally, food in Yunnan is generic, boring, made without heart and effort, ridiculously oily and of pretty low quality generally.
I actually tried taking it when my school asked me to. There were a couple of questions I couldn't for the life of me figure out why they wanted (some personal non-relevant stuff too) so I sent a mail asking into them. Never heard back, also the 'online interview' never worked. Now, this was in the beginning of the implementation of this brilliant idea so I assume they've bettered it by now, although knowing China I wouldn't put money on it. Long story short, I never finished it and I renewed my contract twice after that with no problems at all. Still got my Z and Foreign Expert Certificate. I believe we were 9 or 10 foreign teachers at my school at the time and only 3 or so managed to get it done. The school never heard back as far as I know on the missing tests -or whatever they are.
Got that mail too (think I've recieved 4 or 5 since getting on GoKunming, not too bad really compared to many other sites) and it's not missionary related. As Lao and others point out, it just like any other angle on the Nigerian scam. Their prime targets are middle aged to older Westerners, people with a good chance of being Christian hence it's worth a shot with the god references. You guys probably know I like to rant against the religious, but this case doesn't warrant it.
@Tonyad. Really? I had no idea. I assume I should be forgiven considering the manner most Chinese cars are parked. Anyway, it happened in Tengchong and not Kunming. Speaking of cars: I know it's a gas guzzler and it's sort of a dick move to buy a big SUV these days, but the Toyota Highlanders do look inviting.
I 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.
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.
Although 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.
"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."
They 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.
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.
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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.