Forums > Living in Kunming > Birth certificate in Kunming @luliana
1. You need to visit a maternity hospital in Kunming NOW. Go EARLY in the morning as the wait lines are cruel and unusual punishment. If you wait, you run the risk that the hospitals will NOT admit you and you will now have a serious problem - not to mention maternity stress.
To give you an idea of the scope of maternity and child care in Kunming - the primary children's hospital typically sees 3,000 OUTPATIENT visits per day and typically has over 1,000 INPATIENT beds in use at roughly 110% utilization (over-utilized). So, choose a hospital as soon as possible. If you can't communicate effectively in Chinese - get a translator or assistant NOW or pay the premium to deliver in the expat friendly hospitals. Remember - just because someone has basic communication skills in English, is NO guarantee of professionalism.
Your bloodwork MUST test clean (NO std's, aids, HIV, etc). The hospital will test you as a pre-condition. This may also reveal other complications, such as pre-Clamydia (which causes high blood pressure and other potential maternity complications with the birth mother). If your bloodwork comes back with a communicable disease, you're facing an entirely new challenge, so hopefully, you won't have to deal with that. I saw this in Japan - the Japanese mother had unknowingly contracted AIDS from her philandering husband and had to give birth in a CDC (center for disease control) hospital trained, skilled, and equipped to handle AIDS patients and babies. It was a heart wrenching stigma for the expectant mother.
Assuming your lab tests come back mostly normal, the hospital will set a date to give birth and will most probably induce labor via IV if you're late. Maternity in China is a machine, but the people are generally good natured and courteous about it all.
Unlike other developed countries, Chinese in general seem to genuinely welcome and embrace children.
2. Once you've registered to see a physician - they'll then direct you to the Kunming Municipal Hospital (near the eastern edge of TuoDeng Lu I think). You'll need to go to that hospital/clinic to apply for the "authorization to have a baby" certificate. I can't remember the exact title - but the maternity hospitals are somewhat interconnected for at least this one thing - this will permit you to name your baby (in advance) and authorizes the hospital to issue you a formal birth certificate, shortly AFTER your baby is born.
3. SOME (probably not in China) hospitals encourage you to donate your own blood to yourself prior to delivery - in case you need a blood transfusion (example c-section, complications, etc).
4. Also, you should be aware - children born in China to non-Chinese citizens are NOT Chinese Citizens by birth. Shortly after your child is born, (30-90 days), you will need to register the baby with the local public security office AND begin the process of applying for your baby's passport.
5. Once you have your baby's passport, you MUST visit the Visa office to get your baby an ENTRY visa. Inevitably, some moron in the visa office may tell you, your baby must leave and return to China in order to get the ENTRY visa (but you can't EXIT without a valid ENTRY visa). Tell them you'd prefer to pay the extra fee, so you do NOT have to travel with a newborn. They will arrange to stamp your new baby's passport with an entry visa.
If the front desk staff give you any bureaucratic nonsense, ask to speak to a supervisor.
ALWAYS be polite, but firm, when things need to be escalated to a supervisory level, if the front desk staff become belligerent or unreasonable. Sometimes, people just have bad days and the front desk staff sometimes like to share their bad days.
Hopefully, I've been more helpful than terrifying (occupational hazard) and wish you only the best in welcoming your newborn child into this world.
Patrick Scally hands GK editorial reins to Vera van de Nieuwenhof
Posted byI was wondering what's next for Patrick. Wish him well in his future endeavors.
Report: Poverty levels continue to drop significantly across Yunnan
Posted by@Geogramatt
Assuming your question was serious - a simple google or bing search will yield a plethora of results. The UN (un.edu) has an excellent article on China and India's definition of "poverty lines", but the information is probably outdated as China's economy zooms ahead. China's National Development & Reform Commission - which manages the national five year plan strategies contains the general high level requirements for sustainable development of this country (en.ndrc.gov.cn).
China's five years plans used to be mocked and ridiculed by the western media - but if you've ever performed or witnessed requirements engineering and the processes and artifacts - you cannot but conclude these artifacts are world class professional documents. The Five Year Plans are essentially high level requirements, which indicate the government's architecture for this country - which are then supposed to be devolved by project owners (government officials) into detailed planning documents for execution, monitoring & controlling, and phase out - following generally accepted globally recognized professional standards for professional project management.
Report: Poverty levels continue to drop significantly across Yunnan
Posted byMany of China's sustainable poverty elimination plans included seeding of livestock (chickens, pigs, etc) to enable animal husbandry, to increase annual income of the farmers. Last reports were China had sustainable eliminated poverty for over 800 million citizens, with roughly 70-80 million to go. Xi JinPing's goal is 100% elimination by 2020.
Regardless of definition - the consistent attention to poverty elimination is laudable and China's accomplishment in this area is unparalleled in recorded history - resulting in formal recognition by the UN for its successful efforts in this area.
Occasionally, there are questionable ploys to eliminate poverty - such as merely moving people from poverty stricken areas to a different place, to accomplish the numbers - however moving to more fertile or arable ground with better access to transportation, water, healthcare and education facilities can also be considered an improvement in quality of life.
China's current Five Year Plans call for the industrialization of the rural areas, in a responsible sustainable manner. This next move will involve a major cultural shift in the rural areas as farmers begin to aggregate land and resources, pay more attention to water and soil pollution, and reduce the uses of chemical fertilizers and insecticides.
Animal husbandry is another area of potential aggregation - with tremendous opportunities for the high technologies from developed nations such as the EU (+UK), Japan, and USA.
All of these technologies offer the opportunity of significantly reduced water usage and significantly reduced water pollution. It's actually a rather exciting period of history to watch as this massive country continues its transition into a developed nation and global leader and expands into the belt and road with infrastructure development for its neighbors.
If the China model can be applied along the belt and road - the entire Middle East and Africa will finally have the opportunity to similarly eliminate poverty, develop sustainable economies, and perhaps even make serious dents on global terrorism.
Property conglomerate Hang Lung opens Spring City 66, Kunming's tallest building
Posted byTerrifying. Two years to get architectural drawings approved and 8 years from inception to project completion. Absolutely terrifying process. I wonder why HangLung was so consistently motivated to develop this project in Kunming?
Video: Zen and the art of patisserie with chef Igor Nataf
Posted byMeanwhile - back to Igor's, the video was quite nice also...Thank you.