Forums > Living in Kunming > Reform of for-profit education I expect all training centers who take in K-9 age students to make necessary arrangements to appear to be non profit - whatever that means in practice.
Subsequently, as someone wrote above, it removes the apples that are in it only for huge profits. In my view the profitability matters more in this evaluation than what are core subjects and what not.
Those failing such measurements would probably have their business licenses gradually revoked and/or not renewed.
If I read correctly, this does not yet have any impact on preschool/kindergarten teaching. But if the goal is truly to reduce study burden of kids, and save time and money of their parents, it won't be long until it extends to younger kids.
In that perspective, I see this as another approach to motivate families to make the second or third child.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Reform of for-profit education These new guidelines, released a week ago, will probably affect future job opportunities for many foreign teachers in China:
www.china-briefing.com/[...]
Forums > Living in Kunming > American Soldier Burials near Walnut Forest Have you confirmed the Chinese spelling for the village name?
In mountainous parts of Yunnan, walnut is a main cash crop and the label on the map may reflect that resource, rather than the actual village name.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Registering foreigners' religious activities "exempt the costs of raising a child under the age of three from personal income tax"
This of course would only benefit those who earn enough to have taxable income (after 5000 RMB automatic deduction) to begin with. At risk of political incorrectness, I'd say this will be the final stage of poverty reduction - weeding out the poor.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Covid vaccine mandatory for all adults? Chinese jurisdictions have the option to connect this to social credit, which is just (perhaps) a milder layer of criminalization.
Paying a visit to the Cool Mountain Yi
Posted byDevelopment brings changes to old rituals as well.
About two years ago I was in a funeral ceremony of a close relative-by-law deep in Changning county in eastern Baoshan prefecture.
The deceased was not really an Yi, but was written off as such in the population records. Rest of the family, as well as most of the villagers, were Yi.
New regulations from authorities state that the deceased may no longer be just buried like they were in past. Instead, they must now always be cremated. I assume this is to save valuable farmland in the mountains, and perhaps for hygiene reasons as well..
Since this cremation is done in a separate facility, it means that the deceased (and his or her left-behind spirit), who previously remained in the family house until buried, have to be taken out of the house for cremation and then returned to the house in a small coffin.
The spirits are known to have some temper, so much care is always put to making them happy.
In that specific village, this was the first case of implementing the new regulations. The ritual specialist had to establish new rituals so the spirit could safely travel outside the house and then return.
Wooden stools were lined in the courtyard, and a line was attached to them to form a kind of bridge, which the spirit could use to leave the household and then return there for further rituals. Firecrackers naturally escorted the way.
This was a variation of a case where somebody would die (accidentally for example) outside of the house. In that case, a similar pathway would be created so the spirit could return to the house for rituals, before usually returning to the mountains where the death occurred.
I was told of a spirit of a man who lives in the nearby mountainside. At that time guns were still allowed, and the poor guy fell to his death when taking a shot at a wild goat or similar animal.
On top of the mountain there are half a dozen shrines for everyone who has died in the mountains. Visitors to the mountain top are expected to kowtow to each of these shrines, or risk wrath of the spirits on their way down.
Sichuan water release devastates parts of northwest Yunnan
Posted byI was going to mention that. Also If there were (even) more dams and associated buffer lakes along the river, then those (unless already full of course) could dampen the impact of this kind of natural disasters further along the stream. But that would be man vs. nature of course, at cost of nature.
Beijing approves massive Changshui International Airport expansion
Posted bySince many Chinese tourists will not stay in Kunming, but head to more touristy places in Yunnan, I'm wondering how many will change plane at Changshui to get to their final destinations, and how many will take subway or other transport downtown and then to other travel nodes - like the high speed train terminal.
I'm thinking that for many the latter option would give a chance to see at least a bit of the provincial capital, and also some countryside from train or bus that they wouldn't catch from air.
Thus the question is, how rest of Kunming's transport system is up to take this expected increase in air passengers.
Bringing classic Shanghai elegance to Kunming
Posted by@Montaigne: The 2pm opening time in end of the advertisement refers to opening time of the original Shanghai location. This ad does not mention opening time of the Kunming location at all, but clicking to the official event calendar entry, it seems to be at 11am.
Study: Air pollution causes loss of intelligence
Posted byI would tend to think, that it is not easy to separate loss of cognitive performance caused directly by air pollution, and loss of same abilities indirectly by otherwise weakened other abilities (ranging from lung performance to worse sleep for example) arising from the same pollution.
Considering the wide range of parameters that may affect ones cognitive performance, it should be no-brainer to conclude that (one way or another) air pollution affects cognitive performance.