Forums > Living in Kunming > Health Certificate @doraemon-lei
Yes - that's how I did the health check in the USA. My office mailed the official Chinese/English form, which I had the US medical rep fill out after I completed the physical.
There was some discussion about whether I'd have to have the completed forms notarized and then authenticated (city, state, federal) - but we fortunately got that request squashed.
There was also some discussion about having this crud translated, which would then require notarization and then the profane and obscene authentication process, but got that quashed also.
The next thing I was asked to do - go to a Chinese Embassy/Consulate and have the health check done yet AGAIN by a health clinic certified and designated by the Embassy/Consulate, AFTER I'd completed the local health check in the USA.
The Chinese Consulate asked me who was directing me to do these things, as they have NO REQUIREMENT for a health check and they have NO DESIGNATED health check clinic, so that inane request quashed also. They also noted - they'd been receiving a LOT of these non-sensical requests. Please note - they were prepared to honor the request by telling me to have everything notarized and authenticated - if it was absolutely mandated by some government agency in China...what a nightmare.
By this time - it's clear someone is making things up, utterly unrelated to work visa requirements. It was apparently originating from the new provincial office staff involved in this newly implemented process.
To reiterate - Yunnan is part of a nationwide pilot to revamp the foreign expert and work visa system (and probably also the student visa and every other type of visa). It seems they're trying to go digital and move away from paper records (yay!). The work invitation letter and the temporary work visa are barcoded and MUST be additionally entered into the MOFA (ministry of foreign affairs) computer system AND both your invitation letter AND your temporary work visa approval certificate (?) must be specifically targeted (addressed) to the consulate or embassy handling your "stuff". My "stuff" was initially addressed to the Chinese Embassy - so in a typical catch-22 - the consulate could not verify any of my barcoded documents as they weren't in their system AND the Embassy refused to handle my documents as I was within the consulate's designated "care" zone...so we had to do all the letters over again.
Following up on this - the un-named to protect the guilty provincial office neglected to also enter my letters into the MOFA system...so even though I had the hardcopy originals - the consulate still refused to issue the work visa, because there was no record of me in the MOFA system.
FYI - for those in the USA and especially california - I used a combination of free county clinics (for the STD checks) and low-income health clinics for the health check certificate stuff. Only had to pay for lab tests (not inexpensive) and nominal fees for physicians (or their lower paid counterparts). I'm not even sure I actually saw a board certified MD in this process.
I'm still waiting to hear if I need the supplemental health check, once we transition the temporary work visa to the semi-permanent annual work visa. I've had to have health checks from the designated clinic sporadically, even though I'd never left China during those periods.
I'll bump this thread if the additional local official health is required of me.
As always, with most things in china, your mileage may vary (YMMV).
This new system process is extremely bug ridden - it's quite obvious nobody did a preliminary process walk-thru before they went live with the pilot. The pilot was the dry run and it was an utter mess for me.
University in Yunnan requires students to run 240 kilometers for graduation
Posted byAs a parent - I'd send my kids there just because of that policy. I wonder if it'll spread to state owned companies.
Update: Kunming Metro Line 3 open as of August 29
Posted byWow - thanks for the update(s). This opens a brand new line of journalistic travel reporting fog gokm. What to see & do around each station (temples, eateries, entertainment, etc).
Look forwards to the municipal subway exit travel reporting (for tourists and locals alike).
And you can also do travel video spots for the local tv channels - chinese love (I think) to see foreigners who can speak reasonably fluently and whom are delighted with the local culture(s).
I'm just glad we can finally (maybe) get to dianchi without grabbing taxis, didiche or buses.
Report: Communally owned forests hold key to healthier China re-greening
Posted byCentral government mandates general or qualitative requirements, It is then the responsibility of various provinces to implement quantitative results.
How would one structure sustainable pilot projects, to demonstrate such diversity - to include funding and finance? Each ecosystem is diverse from the next - so to initiate a project requires finance to study the current (or previously existing) bio-diversity, to develop a sustainable plan to move forwards with responsibly and sustainably managed resources.
This requires access to academic and commercial resources - who won't work for free.
Alien's solution is direct, but probably not scalable, sustainable and therefore feasible (too many people - reduce population).
When presenting an issue or problem, it's always a good idea to have at least three potentially feasible solutions for discussion and implementation.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
Posted byplease forgive the grammatical errors... (example conscious vs conscience)...etc.."dammed" spelling corrector...
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
Posted by@east
Concur with your assessment - but fossil fuels are a known depleting asset, hence the long-term (perhaps beyond our lifespan) national impetus behind these assets.
Also agree that hydropower construction can be infinitely more LEED-ish in their construction behavior.
On that note - many of the more heavily polluting industries such as mining, refineries, etc can be made significantly cleaner through energy based solutions - which we have yet to witness generally in China.
For example, pollution from Guangzhou's fossil plants can energy-assisted technologies currently in use in developed countries - so that's perhaps a hybrid solution that benefits both parties - assuming one can find the funding to implement such technologies AND the project owners are sufficiently motivated to implement such cleaner technology supplements/complements - aka central government mandates, grants, and subsidies.
As for the legendary Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) - those usually come with FIT (Feed in Tariff) agreements - hence the short-term nature of these agreements. We've seen globally that FIT programs are short-term solutions to encourage market entry, but are non-sustainable.
As for grid congestion - that's an issue of planning. As you've noted, China and even developed countries still have not developed the technologies to enable efficient long-distance transmission of power.
Hydropower isn't going away - so the best solution is to hybridize and try to work with what we have to minimize all the valid issues you've raised and do our best to render these systems more ecologically harmonious - example hybridized sluice - where we can still sustainably maintain the downstream environments at a safe but sustainable level.
Too often, commercial and environmental interests stand diametrically opposed and commercial interests typically dominate.
So if you have viable suggestions that can be presented to the NDRC, I'd be more than willing and interested to discuss and perhaps help frame the projects and finance (in English, regrettably), along with potential downstream domestic government and pseudo-government investors, to add to hopefully create a potentially overwhelming sustainable, scalable, and feasible solution that NDRC can in good conscious mandate.
It's not a perfect solution - but perhaps a good first step to more responsible resource utilization and management and infinitely better than standing still, diametrically opposed.
I suppose this would be called "managed wetlands" or something like that (as opposed to eliminated wetlands) - assuming the issue is downstream wetland ecosystems.
Feel free to PM (private mail) me to discuss how to move forwards - perhaps even generate multi-lateral support.
While it may not seem apparent, ALL governmental infrastructure projects require feasibility studies, which include social and environmental impact studies - so the first starting place is to examine those studies, to understand the current standard government logic and behavior in approving and or waiving of those social and environmental costs.
To access this information, you'll absolutely need a strong commercial or government partner - the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Again - the objective is to change the working model so we're all actively working together as opposed to butting heads (with a little central government mandate to help encourage the reticent).