Ma Li at Wheatfield Bookstore (www.gokunming.com/[...] around the corner from the Yunda west gate has a limited but interesting selection. Last time I was there I saw a copy of Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.... definitely worth a look, Ma Li might also know some other places in town to pick up vinyl, but I'm guessing it's gonna be revolutionary songs or stuff that was coming out of Shanghai in the 1920s-30s.
@Tom/jivebunny: Thanks for the kind words, glad to have been helpful.
@Tom: Best of luck with your new endeavors, see you at the Hump later.
Taobao City's address is 448 Baiyun Lu, it's about 150 meters east of Beijing Lu and just west of the intersection of Baiyun Lu and Wanhong Lu (万宏路) on the north side of the street.
For the record, this is not a website for foreigners, it is a website for English speakers living in or visiting Kunming/Yunnan. Originally, I started it in 2005 so I could have a quick online reference for good places around Kunming because I would often order ahead before leaving home for my favorite neighborhood restaurants.
The original version of GoKunming was actually bilingual. When we became a two-man operation (and a real, living, breathing website) in 2006, we decided to just make an English site because it was simply too much work for two non-native Chinese speakers to update and maintain the site in two languages.
The majority of GoKunming users may be foreigners, but I am just as happy for Chinese people to use the site to find people to rent their apartments as I am for a foreigner to find a cheap used refrigerator.
With the rate that people are learning English here, I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years there were more Chinese users of GoKunming than foreign users, which would be fine. I'm just happy that people find it useful.
I think most people, even the hippie douchebags, are going to be receptive to new people as long as the interaction feels like a two-way street rather than just one person taking as much info as they can from the other.
If someone's hanging with friends and trying to unwind with a beer after a long day of work, the last thing they want to do is answer a million questions from a person they've never met and may never see again.
If you're going to ask a stranger for help, I feel like it's far more fair to the person whose downtime you're interrupting if you offer to buy them a beer or a coffee, anything to let the other person know you're not just a "taker". Even if they don't take you up on the offer, they're likely to appreciate it and open up more than they normally would.
As Chingis mentions, a lot of information already exists in the forums on this site... poking around different threads is likely to answer many of your basic questions. I'd also suggest trying to check out different events around town, which will give you an idea of what kinds of people hang out at which places.
No results found.
Happy ninth birthday Sal, you've made Kunming a better place.
Four stars for a great restaurant with friendly staff.
I give Tusheng Shiguan a fifth star for its goal of promoting environmentally sound food production.
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.
Tom and Jiajia have been baking up a storm lately. Thanks to them I have delicious sourdough bread to toast on the space heater in the office.
The Bircher muesli is probably the healthiest and most delicious breakfast around.
Pound for pound, one of the best little Western restaurants in China. 佳佳万岁！
Just had gnocchi in mushroom sauce and a glass of wine for dinner on the balcony in mid-January. Awesome.
Fog shuts down Kunming airport, strands thousands
Posted by@Elfin: I do believe it was a little foggy the other day. I flew out on the 19th without any delay. No idea what the weather will be like on the 23rd, but if it is foggy, a delay is likely. Not sure what you mean by "staying overnight situation", it's easy enough to cab/bus between the airport and the city. If flights have been canceled or delayed I'm guessing the tiny 'hotel' in the airport will be full. It's a ripoff anyway, you're better staying at a hotel in the city.
Fog shuts down Kunming airport, strands thousands
Posted byTwo friends and their infant were flying in from eastern China last night.
Ten minutes before arriving at Changshui they were rerouted to Guiyang, where they spent the night.
Now my friends say there is fighting at the Guiyang airport and they were hurried onto a plane that shows no signs of moving. I'm flying out of Changshui tomorrow, I half-expect to run into them then.
Kunming has a shame, and its name is Changshui.
Fog shuts down Kunming airport, strands thousands
Posted byShanghaiist put together a gallery of Xinhua photos too:
shanghaiist.com/2013/01/06/kunming-airport-chaos.php
Fog shuts down Kunming airport, strands thousands
Posted byNice bit of info from Global Times, the FOX News of China:
'A journalist from the Kunming-based newspaper Yunnan Daily, who declined to be named, confirmed to the Global Times that the airport, which went into operation just six months ago, was short of ground crew and not equipped with enough support facilities.
"There is no large hotel close to the airport so stranded passengers are sent back downtown, 30 kilometers away. When passengers complained about the low temperature inside the airport, they were told that the heating system was not fully operational."'
I didn't see anything resembling a heating system in the airport. Even if there is one, one would think it might be nice to have it operational by January.
Of course, GT has to be "fair and balanced", so it includes this chap saying that people had no right to lose their cool in the face of incompetence and indifference:
'"These passengers' actions were radical, and violated laws," Zhang Qihuai, a researcher from the Institute of Air and Space Law under the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times.'
Full story here: www.globaltimes.cn/content/753920.shtml
Fog shuts down Kunming airport, strands thousands
Posted byTurns out that my flight that I gave up on last night was canceled, and I was refunded my money without having to get a flight cancellation certificate like two days ago, which involved fighting my way to the counter and vying for the attention of the overwhelmed staff.
A friend of mine went to the airport today and her flight left on time at two, so I decided, just for a laugh, to try for the third day in a row to fly out of Kunming. Heinz's comment above suggests that the chaos from less than a day of fog two days ago may still be an issue.
It seems that there is very little in the way of contingency planning at Changshui International Airport for emergencies or even normal occurrences such as cold weather. I truly hope the loss of face for the airport and Yunnan Airport Group spurs someone in charge to make sure that the airport is more prepared for emergencies and other mafan in the future... if something like this happens during Chinese New Year it may take ages to get things back to normal.
Hope that service and preparedness at the airport will improve may be misplaced for the next few years, it appears expansion is the priority for the foreseeable future: centreforaviation.com/[...]