Things get busy and you should definitely try to get your bus tickets as early as possible.
There are a number of bus-ticket offices in Kunming city center (e.g. near the train station; on 121 Dajie at the intersecion with Jianshe Lu; at Xizhan), where you probably will have to queue, but which are still much better than the crowded bus stations themselves. Do not assume that you can just show up at the terminal and get a bus out any time soon. However, bus services to Xiaguan (Dali City) are better able to handle the increased traffic than smaller places.
I am not actually sure this affects the visa office for foreigners, which has been in a separate office on Beijing Lu for ages and not up in Jinxingqu. I think this just affects the office for Chinese citizens.
However, when I got my data plan with them over a year ago, I tried to get the half year or year card in Kunming (option four at the bottom). First I was told they would only sell it at their head office (next to Panlongjiang, just south of Renmin Lu IIRC), but they could/would not sell it to me either. So I went for option 3, a monthly plan at Y80 for 1GB nationwide (plus 2GB per month free inside Yunnan only, not mentioned on the page), which has the option of using much more at decreasing cost. But you have to plonk down 1200 as initial deposit. This is a data plan (but SMS works, as does Skype and tethering).
If they sell it, the half-year card for Y300 for 3GB would probably your best option.
They needed my passport and police registration, not sure if hotel registration would do.
Apology accepted, sometimes in the heat of the moment we do things that we know are not right and regret later.
However, there is a different aspect to this story, which prompted my original comment. Certain countries try to erase unwelcome people from their collective memory. For writers this means: their books never published, their plays not performed, their names not mentioned. In the case of Gao Xingjian the official Chinese response was to deny that he is Chinese and he has become one of those unmentionables: so for the Chinese media, Mo Yan is the first Chinese to receive the Nobel prize for Literature.
I can accept that GoKM tries to avoid anything that is even remotely controversial (even though that is a marked change from the previous owners and GoKM appears to be more Catholic than the pope by even not mentioning Kunming events that are widely reported in the Chinese media, the most recent involving a Fujian official and a Kunming newspaper). But I do draw the line where this policy turns not just into statements that are not true, but that collude in the practice of erasing dissidents from collective memory.
There has been another Chinese writer receiving a major literary award with two more than tenuous connections to Yunnan. Searching for 'Friedenspreis 2012' will give you a few more details.
@Liumingke1234
thank you for accepting the apology on my behalf. I did not know I had an impostor on GoKM.
... 'as it clearly states in the article's final paragraph'...that you changed after I posted my comment.
The previous version said 'Mo is the first Chinese to win...', no mention of the cop-out 'citizen' in your initial version.
A mistake is one thing, a stupid mistake is another thing, not having the integrity to own up to it is three steps down from that. Shame on you.
Gao Xingjian was born in China, wrote in Chinese, got his book published in Taiwan, wrote about his life in China and everybody understood the award as criticism of contemporary China/Chinese literature.
Gao Xingjian was the first Chinese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. China was not pleased about it and tried to ignore it happened.
Is this already too controversial for the new GoKM?
Thanks for providing another sanitized view of Yunnan that bears little resemblance to what people say about their 'holidays'. It is also good to 'know' that Yunnan has one of the best road safety records in the world, with (if one would extrapolate) just 150 people dying in traffic accidents over a year in a population of over 40 million.
Most articles by you seem to be just sloppy copy and paste jobs from the internet - essentially collations of unchecked numbers. Sometimes I wonder if you actually live here.
It is rare to find good approximations of western food anywhere in China and their lamb-chops (listed as lamb T-bone steak or so) were the best I have found so far. They came with good fries and the beer was cold. I liked the way that they serve the gloopy 'black-pepper sauce' separately, so one can just skip it. Pleasant and quick service too.
A pleasant modern eatery. The menu claims the chef worked for a large Chinese chain of Thai restaurants, but the Thai aspect of the food is difficult to find.
I gave the 'boneless chicken feet' a miss and had some spicy beef which while not bad was closer to the usual Sichuan fare than anything Thai. A dog under the table quickly lapping up any dropped food complemented the Sichuan experience.
The spring rolls were not bad though and together with a beer the bill came to Y58.
Easily the best bread to be found in Yunnan with friendly and efficient service. I have made detours to Dali just to pick up some bread on the way back to Kunming.
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Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byApology accepted, sometimes in the heat of the moment we do things that we know are not right and regret later.
However, there is a different aspect to this story, which prompted my original comment. Certain countries try to erase unwelcome people from their collective memory. For writers this means: their books never published, their plays not performed, their names not mentioned. In the case of Gao Xingjian the official Chinese response was to deny that he is Chinese and he has become one of those unmentionables: so for the Chinese media, Mo Yan is the first Chinese to receive the Nobel prize for Literature.
I can accept that GoKM tries to avoid anything that is even remotely controversial (even though that is a marked change from the previous owners and GoKM appears to be more Catholic than the pope by even not mentioning Kunming events that are widely reported in the Chinese media, the most recent involving a Fujian official and a Kunming newspaper). But I do draw the line where this policy turns not just into statements that are not true, but that collude in the practice of erasing dissidents from collective memory.
There has been another Chinese writer receiving a major literary award with two more than tenuous connections to Yunnan. Searching for 'Friedenspreis 2012' will give you a few more details.
@Liumingke1234
thank you for accepting the apology on my behalf. I did not know I had an impostor on GoKM.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byCorrection: your original page said he is the 'Mo is the first Chinese person to win the Nobel Prize for literature'.
Double checked with the Google cache:
See webcache.googleusercontent.com/[...]
Shame on you, Patrick, for changing the article and pretending you did not.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted by... 'as it clearly states in the article's final paragraph'...that you changed after I posted my comment.
The previous version said 'Mo is the first Chinese to win...', no mention of the cop-out 'citizen' in your initial version.
A mistake is one thing, a stupid mistake is another thing, not having the integrity to own up to it is three steps down from that. Shame on you.
Gao Xingjian was born in China, wrote in Chinese, got his book published in Taiwan, wrote about his life in China and everybody understood the award as criticism of contemporary China/Chinese literature.
The guy is French, obviously.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byGao Xingjian was the first Chinese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. China was not pleased about it and tried to ignore it happened.
Is this already too controversial for the new GoKM?
Golden Week: Planes, trains and especially automobiles
Posted byThanks for providing another sanitized view of Yunnan that bears little resemblance to what people say about their 'holidays'. It is also good to 'know' that Yunnan has one of the best road safety records in the world, with (if one would extrapolate) just 150 people dying in traffic accidents over a year in a population of over 40 million.
Most articles by you seem to be just sloppy copy and paste jobs from the internet - essentially collations of unchecked numbers. Sometimes I wonder if you actually live here.