User profile: Alien

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Forums > Living in Kunming > New visa/immigration regulations July 1, 2013

I have a one-year F visa issued in April that allows me to stay in mainland China for 60 days, after which I must leave the country and come back. Recently I was told that making a trip to China no longer (since July 1) counts as 'leaving China". I checked with the visa office in Kunming and they said that, yes, a trip to Hong Kong is still sufficient to get me another 60 days. Since there's been some confusion about all this, I am now worried that I'll go to Hong Kong and then find that I cannot come back to Kunming without going to a foreign country first.
Does anybody know what the truth is?

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > 小矮人王国 - Kingdom of the Dwarfs

Geezer, basketball players pander to a crowd that watches them because they are good sportsmen. Short people at Dwarf Kingdom pander to a crowd that watches them simply because they are short.

Misfit, I can sympathize with short people who go to work at Dwarf Kingdom because they can't get other jobs - they are making the best of a bad situation, and have immediate needs. However, over the long run, places like Dwarf Kingdom do nothing to improve the situation that gives them few better choices in life.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > 小矮人王国 - Kingdom of the Dwarfs

Basketball players play a game that people like to watch. Being tall is an advantage in this game.

People performing at ethnic/dwarf tourist sites present their identities according to instructions from those who control them economically in a manner that panders to popular, often demeaning misconceptions of who they are as human beings.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Last night's scuffle on Wenhua Xiang

There was a serious incident, which could have become more serious. It's been discussed. There are ongoing problems which are pretty much understood. People are encouraged not to act like a-holes.

Now I think it would be nice if the whinging would stop, and whoever doesn't want to stay here can leave.

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Comments

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Most of the villages in the valley are Bai, an official minority. There are also supposedly Lisu in the hills to the east - I haven't gone up there, but they shouldn't be more than a few hours' hike at most.

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On its way to becoming overly touristified, like many other places that have already gone too far in that direction - but still very much a great place. Thing is, the town of Sideng is only one point in the Shaxi Valley, & with a bicycle you can ride up & down the valley for a very long way.
The Shaxi Cultural Center & Guest House in Sideng is a very nice place to stay in an old courtyard house - very comfortable & friendly but not over commercialized.

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@Willie Gee, I think a lot of it may be going to make the city fancier & more 'modern'; and, through that effort, into the pockets of those who live on profits and/or their friends in government.

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@Alex: I think Kubilai Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, commanded the troops - was your ancestor, youngest son of Genghis Khan, with them? Possible, but it seems odd - would like to hear more about this.

Reviews

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Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.

As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.

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Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.

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Really good pizza and steaks. The wine machine fuddles me when I'm a bit fuddled, & seems unnecessary. Good folks on both sides of the bar.