The district office handling my work permit sent a group WeChat message today.
The message mentioned calling "Anti-epidemic Headquarters Office" to ask about situation of foreigners' vaccination, and citing response "foreigners should be able to get vaccine after July 1st", and that "foreigners in prefectures can get it now, but in Kunming city cannot".
Anything new about vaccinating foreigners in Kunming?
On hearsay I'd share that last week my wife's Chinese colleague saw a foreigner getting the vaccine at a clinic in Kunming. She apparently asked about it, and was told that it was possible because the foreigner was enrolled in China's (medical) social insurance scheme.
English schedule for the Euros and more: www.sinoepg.net/
CCTV-5 will be showing the matches live at least for the first weekend, with Chinese commentary of course.
If there are concurrent matches, then 5+ would be showing the other overlapping one. That's a common use for the 5+ channel, used for example with UEFA Champions League broadcasts.
5+ used to go with suffix "live events" in past, supposedly focusing more on live broadcasts/replays of events of lesser/no domestic importance, in order to reserve the main channel for Chinese sports or international sports of bigger domestic interest.
Nowadays it seems to be showing more live ice hockey and tennis than the main channel. Varies by season though.
Yes, minorities were excluded from family planning. Still my wife, who is Yi and the youngest of 3 siblings, always jokes how her parents had to "buy" her. There was some kind of fee/fine for having her in the 80s.
I have little experience of rural China outside Yunnan, but it is my understanding that it's rougher up here than in many other provinces.
From what I have seen here, I cannot imagine lot of rural families wanting to have more children without intent and possibility to send them to study, work and live in cities. Even sending them to Yiwu to make sneakers may not be a viable option in coming decades.
In the mountains you simply don't have enough flat land to farm. Maybe somewhere else there is justification to raise more farmers, but also in those places farming machinery works better.
Mind you these are places that should be also high on China's poverty reduction agenda, and having more babies in already impoverished villages would be quite counter-productive.
China doesn't currently depend on income tax of its workers the same way western countries do.
In particular rural residents, most of them, never in their lives go above the current 5000 RMB per month limit to pay taxes. Even in cities like Kunming lot of jobs are below that.
The problem of shrinking workforce is slightly different problem here than elsewhere. Despite all the talk of AI and robotics, China still needs hands to make things, and above all consumers to drive the economy.
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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.