User profile: lemon lover

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Is there still drought?

Sorry to see people with a very limited experience write comments on this forum. Yes there is plenty of water in Yunnan but mostly in rivers that just passes through. The higher places that are dependent on rainfall, and Kunming is part of that, lack water. Indeed some of it is due to bad planning and wastage but in general there has not been enough water for Kunming but especially for farmers that are dependent on it. When I travelled through the province just before the rain season I was shocked about how dry the countryside was and how low, even dry, the reservoirs are. Even natural lakes have much lower levels and wetlands are drying out. Not only that but the damage caused by wild fires has been enormous.
However; and I think that was the question, the water supply in Kunming is largely back to normal and even when it was restricted it was still manageable for house hold use by filling up some buckets during the supply period. Mind you, I was glad that I was not running a restaurant or something like that during the restricted period.
To put things in perspective. The Kunming water use is about 100 litres/person/day. The bare minimum is 5 litres/person/day (UNHCR Guidelines)
Anyway hardly anybody drinks the water (Also that is quite posible) and one commenly has 18 litres drinking water supplied for a few kuai at home nearly 24/7.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Where to buy shoes?

Having a complicated size 47 myself I do not even try to look for shoes in Kunming. I have to stock up in Europe and even there it is hard enough (And often made in China).
But one tip that will not help you for your wedding but others living or travelling around these parts of the world.
HANOI. In the center of Hanoi at the back of the "Water puppet teatre" there is a shoe market and some of the shops there sell shoes in large sizes (Mind you not to much choice either but better than Kunming)

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This is the parking place of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Looks like it happened at night because during the day this parking is full of cars and busses. The road is on the left of the picture and must be closed off as well. Clearing this will take some time because one cannot push the debris just over the edge because there is the Tiger Leaping Gorge itself. Might be nice to have a second big stone laying in the middle of the stream but that rock is bit too large to move in one piece.

As usual in reports in the local press the numbers are wrong. The big rock in the middle alone is 30 cubic meters (compared to the buildings in the back). The debris must be chopped up and even blasted to smaller pieces and then carted off. Pity that these horrible plaster murals on the hillside have not been destroyed.

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I don't know when you went to Luguhu but the road between Lijiang and Lugu has improved enormously over the last few years and the new road between Lugu lake and Ninglang has been completed and is now one of the best roads in Yunnan. From there the road is the old road to Lijiang and a bit congested at certain spots. Indeed just outside Lijiang the road is a total mess because of road-works. The old road is completely destroyed by heavy trucks here going between the cement works and Lijiang (A common problem in China; modern trucks can carry more load then the road have been designed and build for and therefore destroy the roads).
I travelled this road earlier this month and it took me 5 hours to cover the Lugu Lake / Lijiang distance. Once the road works have been completed it might take 4 hours. That is half the time it took me in 2009.
Travelling from Xichang in Sichuan still takes a full day and from Chengdu I would do it in two days. (Many road improvement works here as well.).
Your statement that "the Sichuan side was much less developed than the opposite shore" I cannot agree with. On the contrary: Apart from Luoshui (The only village at the lake) the Yunnan side has hardly been touched by tourism while the Sichuan side has seen rapid touristic development.
One of the nice things of Lugu lake is/was that it is less over-run by tourists. Something that spoiled it for me in Lijiang and Shangri-La. A new airport will hasten the process of it becoming one more of the "shopping mall" tourist towns like Lijiang. Already now I noticed that more and more local business women (The local Mosuo culture is matrilineal and this mend that most shops, restaurants and hotels were owned and run by women) have been replaced by outsiders (Mostly Sichuan businessmen) and that part of the atmosphere has gone.
Note as well that the area has an access fee of 80 RMB per person.

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