OK good so all expressway now then.

xbasd6, one more reason why I don't catch buses in Kunming - if I'm not driving, I catch cabs or walk if the distances aren't too bad. Very occasionally I might catch a bus, but only for relatively short distances and I always guard my pockets like a hawk. Long distance buses are OK, provided they are day time services. Typically night services take longer anyway as the drivers usually decide to rest for a number of hours rather than continue onto the destination and arrive in the middle of the night. No clue why they even bother with night time services given they don't drive through the night like they are supposed to (in Thailand all night time bus services drive through the night with little more than a 15-minute stop for toilets and a meal).

If you are travelling overland from Kunming to Laos for a visa, note that Chiang Mai (which has a Chinese consulate) is closer and will take far less time to reach from Kunming via Jinghong than going all the way down to Vientiane.

Hi, I'm looking at entering China via Hekou and heading back to Vietnam that way after the end of my business trip. I may request my company to pick me up by car at the border, but if the expressway is finished then a bus wouldn't take that long anymore. It used to take up to 8 hours for the 400km journey due to a stretch of horrible road north of Mengzi, going past Kaiyuan to south of Shilin. I have heard that the expressway missing link may not be finished. If so, then bus travel times would probably be down to 6 hours or less. Does anyone know the latest? Oh and otherwise maybe it would make sense to catch a bus going along the Mengzi expressway to the train station there and catching a train to Kunming instead? Apparently it only takes 4 hours by train now. is there still only 1 train a day on that line?

A 500 Yuan note may not yet be necessary and is jumping the gun a bit going from just 100 all the way to 500.

How about a 200 Yuan note? That's about 1000 Baht, which is the largest note in Thailand, where it's not that difficult to use and get change for.

The current 100 Yuan note is too low a denomination to carry around in large quantities and is after all worth just a measly US$15. So for a country that is the world's second largest economy and who wants to internationalize it's currency (as it should) larger notes will become necessary, not to mention the fact that China isn't that cheap anymore.

Even much cheaper Vietnam has a 500,000 VND dong note worth almost US$25, a full 2/3 more than the 100 Yuan note.

As further evidence that a 500 Yuan note might fail is Switzerland, whose currency of course is worth a lot more than the Yuan, but still.

Years ago you had 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 Franc notes. Then the 500 was eliminated and replaced by a much more practical 200 Franc note, which is dispensed by ATMs and widely used. 1000 Franc notes, which are still very much in circulation, can only be obtained from banks and are generally only used for large transactions such as paying the rent, buying a car in cash etc.