User profile: michael2015

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Searching for University Job Offers

@ultm8
As you didn't specify Kunming, here's the list of universities in Yunnan:

en.wikipedia.org/[...]

If you want to live in the capital, Kunming - living expenses would naturally be significantly higher than the other prefectural level cities with universities. Yuxi is one of the fastest growing cities in China, so expect lots of construction (and dust), but "newer" stuff.

My personal recommendation would be to get your feet wet in Kunming at any of the larger universities, such as Yunnan University (the only state level uni), Kunming University of Science & Technology (which I think is actually larger than Yunda in student enrollment), Yunnan Minorities University, etc.

Depending on WHERE you teach in Kunming, you MAY be exiled to the university town outside of the main city, but it's a short trip but laborious trip into town to savor the many excellent expat venues listed on this website.

Once you're here - suggest you use your free time to explore the other prefectural level cities and visit the universities on your off days, to see which cities and universities (and students) may suit your tastes.

Most of the major universities run satellite campuses and have college and vocational etc branches in other cities.

You MAY want to also look at the many high schools, that occasionally recruit - the workload is much heavier, but they also sometimes more competitively.

If you enjoy moonlighting - there's also a plethora of after-schools throughout the province, both legally licensed (they pay taxes) and the "non-registered", which recruit aggressively for K-12, professionals, etc, not to mention the private tutoring opportunities for one-on-ones and smaller groups, which I'll assume you're familiar with, as you've been in the field for six years.

Bear in mind - about half of Yunnan is at 2000 meters altitude or higher, so do a general wikipedia on the cities if weather might be an issue for you.

Xishuangbanna might be nice, for its tropical climate, generally slower pace of life, and proximity to the South Asia borders, if traveling around is on your agenda. You can reasonably access Vietnam, Myanmar, etc for day trips - but check your geography - however there are relatively inexpensive buses that go everywhere.

This entire province is a heavy domestic tourist province with about half of 50+ China's minorities strongly represented here - so lots of minority cultures, languages, and people groups to explore.

You MAY want to expand your search to Guangxi before or after you arrive.

Guangxi is also a progressive province (depending on one's definition of progressive), but at a lower altitude. The winters in Yunnan are generally short, but can be blistering cold, because of the altitude and wind chill factors, not to mention the lack of humidity.

Best wishes in your relocation search!

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > China Eastern again

@fixitwithahammer
I'm very sorry that you were subjected to such poor service, especially with a baby in tow.

Whenever you deal with front office staff and they become negligent, abusive, or just are NOT doing anything related to customer service, escalate things immediately to a supervisor, and keep going up the chain until you get things done.

You can also threaten to call the police (and don't be afraid to do it), for theft, fraud, etc. In this case, you'll need to have the airport police come out, then request the formal police come out, so you can file a fraud and theft report. Although nothing will come of it - filing a police report against staff is still a serious issue and will cause the front office staff serious problems with their management all the way to the top.

NOW it will be their problem. Remember to save up this trick if the supervisor also is reticent to help resolve the problem.

Make sure you document EVERYTHING legally, including names of the front desk staff, the supervisor, the time, etc. You will need this information for the police report.

This will give you something better to do with your time, than trying to negotiate with negligent, poorly trained staff and it will give you the satisfaction of knowing that you are a very courteous person - you can also shovel hot potatoes around.

In all things - remember to be polite, patient, firm, and matter of fact about regretting the need to file a police report.

The police report is necessary for filing a civil fraud claim against the airline, when you return home. It will include dates, times, names and is an official document (don't forget to get the police report number).

Most front desk staff think customers are powerless, but we're not - you just have to know how to empower yourself, and be prepared to use that hammer. Since they're obviously lying to you - you can also make up stories scary stories about what happens to front office staff when they fraudulently misrepresent transactions that cost money (fired, jail, and the follow-on civil suits for compensation, which they'll now be solely responsible for repaying, as they've been fired, which will also add weight to your civil and criminal case against the airline.

This is just for future reference - as you NEVER know who CE has a code share agreement with...so know your rights and how to be an utter stench.

If you're elderly - you can also do the "grab your heart" thing - for maximum melodrama - maybe even get the media to show up - they love a scandal.

Just make sure you're absolutely in the legal right, read your ticketing information legalese carefully.

Also - make sure you have the corporate office's number, as they need to know that a huge stink is coming their way, with that police report.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > election in US

I'm more interested in how educated Chinese viewed the elections. I was approached as the university faculty was incredulous that Trump could actually be a candidate, much less have an opportunity to be the next POTUS. Even I'm was surprised. I thought Hillary would win for sure, as they seemed able to manipulate and spin the government incredulously.

I guess the US electoral system actually works - that's actually encouraging for me. The media, meanwhile, is gonna absolutely love this guy - he's SO flamboyant and bombastic. Some of you may recall a former POTUS Gerald Ford and great man in his own right, who was more famous for being clumsy. I'm looking forwards to President Elect Trumps foot-in-mouth event!

The next question - which foreign country will he visit first? This usually indicates the USA's economic focus.

The UK's PM Theresa May visited India first, as opposed to China.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Birth certificate in Kunming

FYI - We went to the maternity hospital behind the Green Lake Hotel for the first. It was a great experience

and the wife felt comfortable. For the second child, the original hospital had expanded significantly and we felt the quality of care had changed, so we switched to the TCM hospital, which is our "go to" hospital for emergency health care, as they have both western and TCM physicians on staff.

I tend to lean towards TCM, unless the situation is life-threatening or immediately dangerous or perilous. Works for me, but your mileage may vary (YMMV).

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First - excellent and informative article. Although I absolutely must concur with some of the views of the expert - the facts are always not so obvious, when one chooses to micro-focus on subsystems as opposed to expanding one's view to a larger system. This is a popular management trend called decision-based data as opposed to data-driven decisions. So agreement, disagreement, or no opinion - depends on one's perspective.

Most westerners, especially those with hidden or obvious political agendas, look at China as they look at the west - a free market based economy.

China is a planned economy and certain infrastructures are built looking forwards decades.

China's energy consumption trajectory is not considered by the author, so let's take a look at that subjectively or qualitatively, since I'm too lazy to do the research numbers.

ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN KUNMING
Our hot water heaters used to be gas powered - but we had to replace the "damned" thing every two years because of the buildup of ash (aka toxins - seriously...green flecks in the ash - what is that? Chromium?) from the dirty gas. We switched to a combination of solar and electric (which do NOT work in tandem).

The prolific construction of new high-rises do not permit the effective use of solar in high density residential communities (e.g. most real estate development mega projects in Kunming are around the 2k residence level. So on demand electric systems make more sense.

COOKING
We haven't switched to electric because the power grid where we live simply won't handle the load (much less our ancient wiring). New high rise developments come with the option of gas or electric - with most choosing electric. It's fast, clean, and doesn't expose the stove components to cooking spillage. We've replaced our gas stove twice in the last 8 years - but to be fair - the last replacement was required because we switched to a new "cleaner" gas.

E-BIKES
Prolific.

MASS TRANSIT
The subway - electric powered. Buses moving towards electric power. And automobiles - e-powered vehicles are an emerging phenomenon with incredibly central government support and subsidies. Occasionally, you'll spot that rare BYD electric powered taxi (the SUV). China is migrating as much as its domestic infrastructure off fossil fuel dependence as possible.

So just from our own personal experiences and observations - consumer-based consumption of electric services is increasing at a steady pace.

ENVIRONMENTAL
There is no argument about the destruction of surrounding habitats and the migration of valley dwellers. This is a management issue for the government as they strive for poverty elimination. A large part of China's poverty elimination program is focused on attracting rural workers to cities, with jobs, education, and the ever upwardly mobile opportunities that education can provide - hence that insane construction pace. Kunming is planned to grow to a size of 10 million (but don't know the date on that plan).

Last time I checked - the city is at about 6.6 million, so we have another 3.4 million to go - so those 2000 unit mega developments (assume a family size of 4) housing up to 4 people, not including grandparents, in-laws, and others - 8k per development. That means ROUGHLY we'll need another 425 real estate development projects to house those 3.4 million additional residents.

That's another 850k families (3.4 mil/4,assuming a family unit of 4) consuming energy, services, infrastructure, e-bikes, cooking, water, toilet flushing, etc etc etc.

And that's JUST Kunming - there are 15 other prefectural level cities with supposed urban sprawl magnet program requirements as part of the nation's poverty elimination strategies.

So the author points out the displacement of a few thousand to a few hundred thousand people. Cast that against 3.4 million and things perhaps aren't quite as obvious - and again, that is ONLY based on Kunming plans. As we all noticed with the formerly famous and internationally maligned Chenggong ghost city (not so ghostly anymore), planned economies can be sustainably successful. And we didn't even discuss all the government (schools, 2 fly toilets, etc) and commercial infrastructures (restaurants, businesses, etc ad infinitum) that spawn from those residential communities. And we haven't even begun to address the energy sucking behavior of the internet and all its derivative industries - data centers, cloud computing centers, distributed corporate IT migration strategies.

Easy to criticize a microscopic spot than to manage the mega complicated system that is China.

However - that said - the author's points ARE valid and we do need alternate perspectives, so we understand the cost/benefit trade-off more responsibly.

And...I'll just get off that soapbox now...

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China is ramping up the use of e-vehhicles - which should take some of the capacity. I'm also wondering about whether we're exporting power to SE asia, which would seem to be an excellent market, and to the middle east where they DEFINITELY need power along the OBOR (one belt, one road).

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I'm thinking his romanizations can be forgiven, given that putonghua was not standard and he's probably hearing a variety of dialectic Kunming hua and the incredibly diverse minority languages and dialects, when the locals or guides provide descriptions of various names and places, not to mention the various linguistic eccentricities of the various european missionaries.

Reviews

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Fuxian Lake is a major vigorously and rigorously protected potable (drinkable) water source. It's host to a plethora of fresh water food, BBQs and the Hilton Hotel overlooks the lake. Behind the Hilton is a rather large collection of villas (HK style), many with basements, garage (not necessarily connected to your home though), and lap pools, if the lake is too far to walk (it's about 1-2km away).

The lake surroundings are a future development site for Yuxi City, so should be interesting to see how the city develops, while complying with the national protection of water resources.

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Took the family here to stroll around and there's a LOT of walking. Many of the stores appear closed, but the bar street nestled inside seems quite well populated.

We chose the Japanese restaurant near the entrance (there are many entrances). The food and service was quite acceptable - from the fruit salad, tuna salad, curry pork cutlet, and the ubiquitous California Sush Rolls (you can buy the small size or the large size).

It rained a little while we were there, which helped drench the heat and humidity. When the sun came out - it was HOT.

If you're lucky, you'll occasionally see people (usually women) wearing minority clothing being photographed by professional photographers. There's also a small photographer's store where you can rent various ethnic clothing and have professional pictures taken (maybe the two are related...now that I think about it).

There's also the ubiquitous game centers (shooting galleries etc) for the kids and unaccompanied teenagers.

It seems the most popular venues were the prolific food courts - but that's probably related to it being lunchtime when we visited. The place is clean and plenty of antiqued door fronts (the wood panels) for those photo shoots.

Capping off the visit, one must of course take pictures on the bridges crossing the lily ponds and the landmark temple spire. We didn't make it to the surrounding temples. Maybe next time.

Transportation is everywhere - but make sure you have your mobile phone ride share app working, just in case you hit rush hour.

Again - for now - it seems many vendors were closed - but I'm positive that'll change again as the economy begins to rebound.

Excellent way to spend a half day as opposed to the kids faces glued to their mobile devices...fresh air, good food, plenty of people watching, and walking...walking...walking...

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Took the family here a few days ago. Wonderful place to go walking with lots of snack & drink kiosks (along with chairs and tables) to rest frequently. This zoo is similar to most other large open air zoos with reasonably spacious enclosures. This place is HUGE so be prepared for a LOT of walking. Consider wearing sensible hiking or walking shoes. Your feet will be grateful.

Entrance fees when we went still cny100 for adults and kids cny70. Feeding the animals at the managed venues - cny30 per site...per child. Monkeys can be fed by tossing carrots and sliced apples into their enclosure - which is good. Monkeys famous for flash mobbing. Can be terrifying for kids (and adults). Even in the enclosures, you can clearly see they're territorial and aggressive. Bullying is displayed frequently enough for teaching moments for the kids (cuz there are monkeys in all schools everywhere in the world).

MOST people bring their own food and drink, as the kiosks are quite expensive. Example a cny5 drink outside is cny10 in the zoo, so expect most everything to be twice as expensive. I had a bbq chick drumstick (leg?) for cny25...ouch.

Bring carrots. LOTS of carrots. The zoo has several managed (paid) and unmanaged petting areas for most semi-domesticated animals, such as the Alpacas (seriously cute), deer, giraffes (ok...you can feed the giraffes on an elevated platform, but probably difficult to "pat" the animals. It's kind of spectacular to actually see giraffes face to face - these animals are simply vertigo inducing huge and tall.

The seal show was nice - typical of seal shows everywhere. Seals are kind of like the dogs of the sea. Friendly and ravenous appetites so easily trainable.

Lots of cheap touristy souvenirs to buy the for the kiddies (and relatives kids).

HIGHLY recommend taking the bus tour - they basically zoom around picking up and dropping off customers (they check your e-ticket at every pickup site) at entrances and exits to walking enclosures. They'll drop you off at roughly 15 minute walking sites. NO need to rush and you can grab ANY bus upon emerging from the walking enclosure sites.

Of course, the ultimate attraction always the lion and tiger exhibits at the top of the mountain.

Bring a fan. It gets hot. We were fortunate as the sky was mostly overcast so the temperature was generally cool, but heated up almost instantly whenever the sun peeked out of the clouds.

Bring LOTS of water. Most veteran tourists have their own liter bottles of water. Bring your own umbrella. When the sun comes out - it's HOT. Bring a wide brimmed hat if you're into comfort over vanity. SUNTAN LOTION never goes astray.

Aside from that - typical Chinese group site with everyone rushing the buses and ticket counters. Not so much rushing for the food venues, so seems the elevated prices keep that comfortably in check.

All in all - GREAT place to take the kiddies (or a date if you both know you're into each other - cuz you'll be spending an entire day together). The Outdoor Zoo seems exceptionally well designed with plenty of both managed and unmanaged (eg walking deer along the roadside and the stroll through the peacock "garden").

Easy cab or shared ride out and back. Taxis aplenty when you're ready to leave (just walk past the parking lot gate - they'll be waiting for you). You should consider dining out or delivery at the end of the day.

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Took the kiddies here again.

1. It's FREE.
2. NO knives, lighters, sharp objects, etc. There's a place in front to check bags, luggage (if you're traveling), etc - but the exit is in the rear of the monolithic building, so it's a bit of a hike to walk back around to the checked storage area (it's also FREE).

THIRD FLOOR
We went straight to the third floor - History and artifacts of Yunnan (mostly). Rich history - lots of original sculptures etc removed from grottoes and displayed in the museum. Lots of English language titles and occasionally some explanatory text in English.

SECOND FLOOR
This is the evolution floor with lots of petrified artifacts - sea life mostly, lots of recreations of animals and environments from pre-man times.

There are coffee shops and dining areas on the first floor and drink vending machines on the second and third floors. The place is HUGE so a great place to take the kiddies and walk around until they're tired. They'll probably enjoy the dinosaur exhibit on the second floor the most. Wait a few minutes and the dinosaurs will roar and move their heads and maybe pretend to chew (open and close their maws).

PLENTY of parking and unfortunately NOT close to any subway station, so you'll have to grab a cab or rideshare but seems taxis and transportation are aplenty in the city and surrounding environs.

And...it's FREE for now. Museum closes at 5pm so make sure you leave by 430-445 so you can hike back to the storage area if you checked anything in as they also close at 5pm.

Enjoy!

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This is a great place to walk around and generally kill time while shopping for nothing in particular. Nearby is the Paulaner Brewhouse for super fantastic food, coffee and drinks, outdoor patio dining or just hanging and people watching.