Hi again,
I've been able to find out about various options:
The 120/day was for the international students hotel, and is indeed a hotel with daily cleaning etc. These rooms are not really suitible for study - contain a bed and a wardrobe, and not enough room to swing a cat (2nd hand info)
At the universities - The dorm rooms, as far as I could find out, cost 1200 per semester or year - unclear which. Standard is fair, assuming you keep it clean etc. yourself. Should be possible to get a private room by paying for the second bed. There are also rooms for up to 6 people - would'nt like the sound of that and didnt ask any more about price or standard.
Various hostels around the city cost about 50 per day for private room. A good option, considering there is usually a restaurant and bar on-site with acceptable standards.
There are various "short-term apartments", one called IC advertises on this site. These are nice, have everything (bedroom/living/kitchenette in one room + hotel-style bathroom) but cost same as a hotel.
Around the train station (the end of beijing road) there are a number of fairly nice hotels with rooms for as low as 40 per night. These are purely chinese hotels, meaning chinese toilet and not a chance of speaking english even at reception, however they are generally a bit bigger than the more international hotels around and some have basic cooking facilities.
Lastly, also close to the station, there is even a "closet" hotel, i.e. rent-a-box, the kind of thing they store dead bodies in at a mortuary!You get about 8 feet long * 3 feet wide * 3 feet high. TV is built in. Did'nt get a price on that. Yongping road, east side.
Great Britain in Kunming schedule of events
Posted bySo what do y'all think are the chances of Britain benefitting from these events? What works for/against them? Certainly looks like the Great Britain events are being boycotted by the local britons...seems to me a bad sign if they cant even try to build relations with their own landsmen and women.
Great Britain in Kunming schedule of events
Posted byThe emperor has no clothes
Recipe: Seaweed, ginseng and sage root soup
Posted byWell if it tastes good and might even do you some good, why not? The soup in the picture looks pretty tasty to me.
About tcm vs western drugs. Have any of you seen the VOLUME of tcm drugs people get? People are literally filling shopping bags at the tcm pharmacies.
As for western meds - i saw a docu which showed that for several drugs, the capsule itself was more beneficial tjan the actual drug inside :) Point 2 about western drugs: theres up to 6000% difference between the cost to produce and the price on the shelf. Whacked out.
Around Town: Zhangguanying Secondhand Market
Posted byExcellent. Everything you want is here, almost..new and used. Plenty of curiosity items, nostalgia, fakes, practical household items, bikes and e-bikes, tools, clothing, furniture etc. I was looking for a cheap portable DVD player but though there were plenty available, they were at best "last years model" ie too bulky.
Easy to spend a half day here, i dont feel like i got treated as a rich laowai i.e. first prices quoted were not outlandish, and the only problem was a lack of food options. Also - little or no putonghua here.
I disagree with the article on two points: 1. Its very taxi-friendly, or at least not worse than anyplace else i've been. Lots of empty taxis pass by (if you walk to the road, of course) 2.i thought it very easy to find and is on google maps.
New taxi placards target 'civility'
Posted byHm ok banning cars won't work. How about a toll? Many countries and cities have done it - and by the way a discount for eco-friendly cars.