Anyone know when these interviews began? I just got my new student residence permit in July and no such interview took place when I went with the university to the PSB, very easy process, just paperwork. Also, you've all been talking about student visas, do you actually mean one year residence permits or are you here on shorter term student visas?
"Chinese Valentines Day" is this Saturday August 2nd and haven't seen any postings or events listed. Anybody know of any special dinners planned for couples, etc.? Plenty of places to dine out of course, but just wondering if any venues in particular have planned anything special?
Have heard many times about a spectacular all wild mushroom hotpot in Kunming, but not sure of the name or location. There are three such restaurants in the southern part of town posted in the listings but no reviews or descriptions have been given. Any thoughts or recommendations on these or others?
Edit: Found this 2010 article on the Guanshang mushroom district: www.gokunming.com/[...]
Anyone have any particular tips on the abundance of places there to try?
The Shangri-La Winery get's their grapes from a combination of grapes grown by villagers throughout the upper Lancang and Jinsha valleys in Deqin along with some of their own larger plantations in the same areas. The government is heavily involved with encouraging villagers to grows grapes which is also leading to some negative issues with livelihoods and food security as discussed in my GoKunming interview.
mmkunmingteacher, I would be very interested in learning more about your article and your work since this is a major part of my own research. Feel free to contact me via offline message. I will also actually have an academic article coming out on this topic later this year in a journal on culture and agriculture.
There is one ski area just outside Shangri-La with 3 or 4 different runs, though the long steep one has rarely ever been opened. The primary problem is that while the area does get snow it doesn't get that much since winter is the dry season, so snow has to be made. I'm not sure how to find out about the current opening/operating status of the ski area, but it shouldn't be too difficult to locate with a Google search. Turtle Mountain Gear in Shangri-La used to have a good deal going with the ski park where they had discounted tickets with all the gear and would drive people out there, but I don't think they're still doing that these days.
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Yunnan air routes a hot commodity
Posted byUnited has already announced direct service from Chengdu to the US via San Francisco to begin this spring; it would be great to see Kunming added as a non-stop US destination soon as well!
Changshui once again closed by fog
Posted byI think you're right on joshwa. There are plenty of airports in the US with chronic heavy fog like SFO that can handle it because they have the equipment to do so. It will often cause many delays and some cancellations because the number of runways in use is decreased, but it will never lead to the cancellation of all flights at the airport. I even lived in Eugene Oregon for four years which get's really bad fog in the winter and when I first moved there flights would often get diverted to Portland if it was heavy, but during my time there they installed new equipment equivalent to that in Portland and Seattle and the diversions more or less never happen now. Typical of China to spend billions on their fourth biggest airport and then not even install the most up date technology.
Getting Away: Chiang Mai's Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden
Posted byGreat article! Glad to hear you finally made it down to Chiang Mai Pat. I actually haven't been to this garden either but it looks amazing, will have to check it out next time for sure.
Interview: Economic ecologist Yi Zhuangfang
Posted byGreat interview Patrick, thanks!
It's really quite interesting how much the issues she has been looking at in the south with rubber run parallel with the agricultural and economic changes in the northwest with grapes where I have been working.
Shangri-la hit by 5.9 earthquake
Posted bySpoke with friends in Shangri-La/Zhongdian today and the town/city itself was not affected other than people there being able to feel the tremor, wich they reported was not that bad. Travel to Zhongdian itself should not be an issue though travel further north to Deqin might not be advised since this would take one right through the epicenter in Benzilan.