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Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China

Carrefour is selling and 80% stake, does not necessarily mean that stores will close. Initially stores and staff will be absorbed by the new owner Sunning. For those areas that do not currently have a Sunning presence, t first all that will change will be the name on the door.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China

Airless holes. I think that sums up a lot of superstores/hypermarkets, in many parts of the world, that are located in a larger multistorey shopping complex. True for Walmart, Homemart, Sunning, Metro, and other places I have visited.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Bike registered - Selling second hand

The authorities have been trying to control the ebike market for several years and previous attempts have not been successful. This time I believe it will be successful.

Almost daily I see police with a recovery/flatbed vehicle seizing unregistered machines. There seems to be a clear mandate to get the no longer legal ebikes off of the road.
Like @JanJal, I thing the main issues have been around safety. When I first came to China in 2004 ebikes were small, light, and only did about 20kph. I also believe they were only 12 v.
Now ebikes are bigger and heavier than a gas scooter, 72V and capable of over 60kph, and still no license, insurance, or training is required to ride one.

I have been hit by an ebike once, whilst riding my bicycle, and nearly been wiped out on at least two other occasions by kamikaze ebike riders.

I have seen several ebike crashes caused by riders who do not have proper control of their vehicle (using feet as brakes, slamming on the front bike causing a low-side and dropping the machine, panicking and just freezing as they plow into other vehicles), this is a training issue. Alternative, let the untrained ride smaller and slower machines.

The market needed controlling. Yes there will be some waste, but in the next 4 years some sanity will quickly return to the streets and cycle paths.
The alternatives are to let the 'arms race' (bigger faster ebikes) and carnage continue, or do what other cities have done and ban ebikes and bikes from downtown (more cars would be the pattern, not desirable), or let the old bikes die through natural wastage (bureaucratic and uncontrollable).

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I don't think the courts are uneducated. I think more cynically. The amount owed is $14k. I bet the owners are still driving flash cars and own several properties. The company may not have assets to pay, but I bet the owners do.

I have just come back from a quick trip around that area, and spent one afternoon and night in Dali. Dali has found a new identity.

I have visited Dali several times over the years, and like many people on here was disappointed with what I saw. The slow commercialisation of Dali, leading to a schizophrenic (not one thing, not another) mess.

On my recent visit, the street vendors had gone the really low end food places had mostly gone. The city was busy, and for a mid-week just before CNY that was surprising. It was not a frantic busy, everything was moving smoothly and working well. Even noise seemed to be down, and I found it a lot less stressful.

There is a sort of gentrification among traders. There are more upmarket shops. There are many more shaokao (national trend) and most of these are chains, rather than small independents. Many of the small family food places have redecorated and are not the old dim and dismal places that they used to be. The commercial development has also spread into other streets.

Dali is not the Dali of old, but it has found a new identity. This new identity may not be to everybody's taste, but I found the city a much nicer place to stay, than I did 3 years ago.

@Janjal, your argument contains many assumptions and additional requirements (story tellers etc). If we cannot provide the additional resources your suggested strategy would require and you cannot get China's rural poor to demand answers; again we have a moot point.
Comparing EU farmers, who are business owners who learn to work the system for profit with the rural poor, Is perhaps a case of chalk and cheese.

Of course material wealth is not the only measure, but it affects many other measures, and is a predominant feature in a capitalist system.

Perhaps it is human nature to want more than we have now, in capitalism this includes having more than the guy next to us. If we have more now than we had before, there is likely to be a sense of achievement/progress/increased security/satisfaction/happiness in that fact alone,. It is also a very simple qualitative measure for almost anyone.

Q. Do I have more than last year. A. Yes/no. If yes, has my relative position compared to my neighbors also improved? Am I content/happy with this?
In reality the questions are not even asked, they are not even out there, but they are part of the zeit geist. In cities with stronger economic growth the answers to the questions are going to be yes for more people. Chengdu is such a place. It is only when the personal costs of achieving this wealth are perceived to outweigh the advantages of the new wealth that people start to question it, but that comes later.

Reviews

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A reasonable choice of lumber that has improved over time. Fancy hardwoods like walnut, and mahogany are in abundance. There are some plywood and rubber-wood boards available. There are also some kiln dried imported softwoods and merbao available. Some of the lumber is very green, so look for the kiln dried if you need stable timbers.

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Echo everything said by others.
Breakfast great and the serve from 8am. Most other places say 9am and they still are not ready.
Sandwiches are cheap 22-32, and really packed full of filling. We got some sandwiches for a day out, the only mistake I made was ordering two, as this was too much. These are seriously good sangars, and they are wrapped in alu foil.

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In fairness to Metro, they are a wholesalers, and not really a supermarket. Hence the need for a card, which can be got around.

They have improved in the year I have been away. They now carry a more consistent range of imported foodstuffs and they also seem to have sorted out the mported milk supply.

They have a wider range of electrical appliances now, there is a coice of more than one toast. There is also a better range of seasonal non foods, like clothes, shoes, garden furniture and camping gear.