DavidJorm, "And the foreigners are by far the worst". Right,, coz the Chinese are very considerate when it comes to smoking. How exactly do you smoke "in an obnoxious manner",, do people come up to you to blow smoke in your face? Most foreigners here only smoke where Chinese people smoke in the first place,, I do not believe we are worse than the Chinese when it comes to that. The nanny state you (we) have back home wants smokers to wear flourescent green jackets when we smoke outside so that innocent bystanders can keep their distance. If you don't like smoking you sure came to the wrong part of the world :-)

hehe,, I completely forgot about the queue issue. 5000 years of history and noone figured out that everything runs more smoothly if you accept this weird and decievingly simple concept. Next time I'll have to get on a bus I'll tiptoe around the old ladies, trip a kid and elbow a couple of guys. If they start to complain I'll have my "This is China,, if you don't like it,," speech ready.

I can balance the scale a bit if you'd like:

1. The climate is nice and comfy
2. The food is good and cheap
3. Housing is affordable
4. The lifestyle is relaxed
5. The girls are hot and approachable :-)
6. Most of the people I've met are nice and friendly
7. You can smoke without people beating you up
8. Taxis are cheap and all around if you need one (very different from my country), so are busses.
9. Vendors generally don't try to rip you off, Beijing sucks to that extent.
10. Kunming is probably one of the best tier 2 cities to live in in China.

Let's go for a controversial thread for once,, God knows this site could use one. :-) "Kunming" can easily be replaced by "China" if you prefer.

1. People spit everywhere and all the time.

2. The traffic is getting worse and worse.

3. A kid is one thing but I've seen grownups taking a dump in the street too.

4. The Lets-all-get-together-and-puke-our-guts-out gatherings in Kundu every morning from 3 to 5 AM.

5. Seeing people beating up their girlfriend in the street and noone does anything about it.

6. Seeing people fighting in the 5-v-1 style and noone stops untill the guy is near to death.

7. Taxi drivers having no clue where to go unless you put on a hefty Kunminghua dialect.

8. The women with a rent-a-kid on their backs grabbing your arm and screaming insults if you don't give them money.

9. The amount of thieves.

10. The way people look at you if you are walking together with a Chinese girl.

I gotta say I kinda like this city though,, I much prefer it to Beijing or one of the other cities I've seen in China. It's definately not the worst place you can be in the world :-)

I arrived in Kunming about 3 months ago, I am working at a language school and trying to learn Chinese at the same time. I have three days off a week and I have been thinking about spending one of those days doing some kind of volunteer work at an orphanage or something similar. Do you have any experience in these matters or any idea where to start if you want to do something like this?