Tiger, have a good trip visiting your daughter next week. Just an update. There may be a bit of paranoia upon your arrival due to recent discovery of UK variant in Shanghai just recently. So foreigners holding a UK passport like yourself may face extra scrutiny in coming days. The mini-outbreak in Dali, Yunnan just days ago will also add to their

extra precautions. Good luck.
Source:
www.caixinglobal.com/[...]

As 2020 comes to a close, a good piece of Yunnan news we may look forward to for next month. The new highway linking Lijiang and Shangri-la is slated to open, cutting travel time by at least half, to around 1.5 hours by car.

I just want to share with everyone an useful resource for on-call home furniture/appliance installations in Kunming and for most first to third tier cities in China. The service provided is hassle-free, and more affordable than trying to procure a nearby worker (more respectfully called "shifu") on your own. Around 70 rmb for most home installation needs mentioned below.

The phone app is called Lubandaojia (鲁班到家).

First, you submit your home need. Whether to install a newly bought furniture like sofa or bed, toilet, sink, lighting fixtures, ceiling laundry rack, curtains, wallpapers, doors, door locks, water heater, misc. appliances, you name it... a handyman near you who specializes in performing your requested task can choose to pickup your order. In minutes, or at scheduled date/time, they would arrive at your residence to complete the task for ~CNY70. Sort of like Didi (or Uber equivalent) transportation services, but for home services.

I recently used the app for finding a handyman to install a ceiling fan bought on TMall for a discount. A handyman (and his wife) came over and brought their own heavy-duty concrete drilling tools and stretchable ladder. Assembled the ceiling fan light fixture itself and installed it to the ceiling. All for 70 bucks.

This service is useful for anyone who bought lower cost furniture/appliance online which doesn't come with same-city installations. The installation option would cost much more through TMall, Taobao, and JD sellers than from this independent app.

FYI, many of these installers who pick up orders on Lubandaojia app are employees of decoration companies contracted by land developers, who seek to make a few bucks on the side via this service portal.

Besides the smartphone app, Lubandaojia also has an official website:

lbdj.com

Bloomberg published a poignant piece underscoring the dire need for China's economic engine to restore.

For us Kunmingers, the underlying difficulties for our locally or foreign owned restaurants/bars/cafes and small retail businesses due to depleting cash.

Restoring consumer confidence and spending is now of paramount importance as "Half of Chinese Retailers Risk Collapse Within Six Months... 60% unable to cover labor and rental costs, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and company reports covering 50 listed firms. Among jewelry and apparel companies, almost half don’t have the cash to last the six months unless demand rebounds sharply, the data show..."

(more here:)

www.bloomberg.com/[...]

You dare say that directly to their "puny" faces?

After all, the once destroyer of empires has in a few days brought entire EU down to their knees, after knocking out the Middle Kingdom for the count... and now they're going after the most powerful military nation in the history of warfare.