Forums > Living in Kunming > DVD shops closed? Got a parking ticket a month ago. Caught up to the guy who issued it and asked him where the sign was saying parking was illegal. He took me back to my car and showed me the bottom of a sing post of which the top was completely covered with branches and foliage. When asked to show me the actual sign (it could have been anything really) he walked around the post a few times but was unable to spot it through the greens. I asked him to suspend the ticket due to improper marking but he refused and told me it wasn't his job to trim the trees -big surprise there. At this point some 10-15 bemused locals had gathered around, trying their best to spot the sign but clearly unaware of which rules and regulations had something to say about the matter. In the end the rent-a-cop just walked off instructing me to go pay within 24 hours. I told him to go catch some thieves, took a video of the scene and still hasn't been to the traffic police headquarters.
Forums > Food & Drink > Wasteful Business Lunches Magnifico: I can't speak for the Americans but in northern Europe, at my home we rarely wasted food. Food was prepared for the number of people there and leftovers were served the next day. At my little friends' homes it was the same thing. Also, if you didn't finish your plate you'd get a stern look from mother and maybe a scolding. Apart from that, when you go out to dinner in Scandinavia you are out several thousand usually, so no, we generally don't overindulge.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Changing money in Kunming Remember that Chinese ATM card pins have six digits. Now, I'm going to sound incredibly dumb because it took me 2 years before I found out that since most western cards use 4 digits you need to press 0 0 first. I won't take full responsibility though since I went to two places (both outside of Kunming) where the tellers and clerks had no idea.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Chenggong to house 2.3 million university students?!?! It was always a hare brained idea IMO. Universities and their students are sources of life in city centres. Bars, clubs, entertainment venues, shopping and restaurants all benefit from a population of college students being around. Thing is, many of them don't have much money in China so if they're not living amongst regular people you risk a Chenggong without many shops, restaurants and the likes, hence it becomes a boring, near-empty, lifeless area where no one wants to go or live. I kind of hope the provincial government has a plan or 10 ready apart from just building and moving, because it's not going to be enough.
Forums > Travel Yunnan > Ruili Visa Run Can't offer anything definitive but, no I don't think so. Currently the Chinese-Burmese border is effectively closed for foreigners and visas to Burma is only issued in Kunming at the consulate. There's still sporadic fighting going on on the other side and rebels have blown the bridge at another border crossing further to the north. Ruili does have a special area on the other side of the river where you're technically in no man's land -for instance, you can buy tax free there without showing papers- but when I was there last time 2 months ago the actual border check point was out of limits and the guards told me firmly to turn my car around and even with a visa I couldn't leave China there.
Can't really help you any further. Hopefully one of the 5-10 'white' foreigners in Ruili can chime in on this.
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.