Look for the tennis courts by the parking lot on the south side of the hotel, the gym is just behind the tennis courts. Everytime I go there I meet nice kids in their early 20s that ask if I'm interested in boxing, so I'm guessing that it should be easy to set up lessons or sparring sessions if you want.
It might be worth re-posting this in the forum section of our Sichuan sister site, GoChengdoo (www.gochengdoo.com)... your GoKunming login info is also valid on GoChengdoo, so no need to re-register.
Local media also has links to FB and even Twitter, check out the links at the top of en.kunming.cn/
Sites can get blocked, but like Wikipedia, the NYT, BBC, etc, they can also be unblocked. The fact that nominally state-run media has FB and Twitter accounts suggests a disconnect that may one day be rectified.
French Cafe and Slice of Heaven are both good places to check. I have had some ridiculously rich and rummy chocolate cake at Sandra's. I believe As You Like does lemon cake and carrot cake. Pretty sure The Box, Salvador's, Mazagran and even the Camel Bar's new restaurant should also be able to sort you out.
I'm not sure how far in advance you need to order with any of these places... it might be worth looking into sooner rather than later.
There are plenty of places off of the typical Kunming/Dali/Lijiang/Tiger Leaping Gorge/Shangri-La/Xishuangbanna circuit, including Dongchuan, Weishan, Puzhehei, Laojun Shan, Yuanmou, Shaxi, Jianchuan, Liuku and more.
@mamasaidknockuout: When I went to do this interview, I spent a few minutes waiting for Xiong in the gym and was asked in English by one of the guys there if I wanted to box... it seems like you can just rock up there if you want.
Xiong ended up winning by decision in a fairly close fight.
Xiong is listed as Zhaozhong elsewhere, I asked him whether he pronounced the 朝 in his name Chao or Zhao and he said Chao, saying he'd seen his name romanized as Zhaozhong before and that it was not correct.
Not surprisingly, there has been no noticeable decline in horn use in Kunming during this campaign. I haven't seen a single sign urging people to lay off the horn, nor have I seen any police issuing warnings or fines.
If you want to see how beautiful a Chinese city without incessant horn-honking can be, just go to Nanning in Guangxi. Nanning has had a horn ban for five years or so now... when I first went there I noticed something was very different from Kunming. It took a while before I realized it was the lack of noise pollution coming from impatient/rude drivers.
What's Nanning's secret? The police there actually enforce the horn ban and do issue fines to drivers who use their horns for no reason. The beauty of this system is that after a while, everyone in Nanning seems to have gotten used to the idea that they can't honk whenever there's someone in front of them, so there's not even much of a need for enforcement at this point.
My favorite Tengchong-style restaurant in Kunming. Their ersi and erkuai are trucked over from Tengchong and are the real deal — Kunming ersi and erkuai do not compare.
The restaurant itself is a bit jumbled, but there are a couple of tables outside in the courtyard that are nice to sit at when the weather's pleasant.
Don't believe them when they say they don't have lufu.
Book Review: Lonely Planet Yunnan
Posted byThere are plenty of places off of the typical Kunming/Dali/Lijiang/Tiger Leaping Gorge/Shangri-La/Xishuangbanna circuit, including Dongchuan, Weishan, Puzhehei, Laojun Shan, Yuanmou, Shaxi, Jianchuan, Liuku and more.
In addition to a profile/interview of Ma Li of Wheatfields, the book also interviews Jeff Fuchs, who we interviewed recently: www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/1732/interview_jeff_fuchs
Interview: Xiong Chaozhong
Posted by@mamasaidknockuout: When I went to do this interview, I spent a few minutes waiting for Xiong in the gym and was asked in English by one of the guys there if I wanted to box... it seems like you can just rock up there if you want.
If you want to get in touch with Tiger/Zovi, there is a contact email at the bottom of this post: www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/20/pugilism_for_the_people
Interview: Xiong Chaozhong
Posted byXiong ended up winning by decision in a fairly close fight.
Xiong is listed as Zhaozhong elsewhere, I asked him whether he pronounced the 朝 in his name Chao or Zhao and he said Chao, saying he'd seen his name romanized as Zhaozhong before and that it was not correct.
Kunming takes aim at car horns - again
Posted byNot surprisingly, there has been no noticeable decline in horn use in Kunming during this campaign. I haven't seen a single sign urging people to lay off the horn, nor have I seen any police issuing warnings or fines.
If you want to see how beautiful a Chinese city without incessant horn-honking can be, just go to Nanning in Guangxi. Nanning has had a horn ban for five years or so now... when I first went there I noticed something was very different from Kunming. It took a while before I realized it was the lack of noise pollution coming from impatient/rude drivers.
What's Nanning's secret? The police there actually enforce the horn ban and do issue fines to drivers who use their horns for no reason. The beauty of this system is that after a while, everyone in Nanning seems to have gotten used to the idea that they can't honk whenever there's someone in front of them, so there's not even much of a need for enforcement at this point.
Interview: Qin Benhui
Posted by@ Elizabeth: The interview was done in Chinese.