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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Dali: bus or train?

You can also book buses from any travel agent. They do pick ups from some hotels in the city, which may be more convenient for you, and cheaper if you avoid a taxi fare.

You pick which bus, there are pictures on a board. Go for the aircon bus, some are Volvo's. These cost 150rmb. The cheap bus is small and cramped and can be smelly.

Book one way.
Loads of agents in the centre of the old city selling bus/coach tickets. All agents are selling the same buses' seats. Or you may fancy the train.

NB, I am not sure, but I don't think the train goes to the Old Dali City, they go to the new city. The new city is maybe 10km from the old city, and so you will need a taxi.

Taxi in Dali do not use the meter, ever! You need to negotiate.
I am not sure what current rates are, I think 25-30rmb others can advise.

Another reason to take the bus.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Cars

We got a new car last month.

First, I assume you have a Chinese driving licence. This is needed for insurance (talk about insurance below)

Procedure was simple.
Firstly you need to go to the police station and register your residence, and if your spouse is Chinese and does not have a Kunming HuKou she will need to register for a temporary residence permit at the same place (needed for vehicle licence, see below). Your spouse will definitely need photos for temp ID. I cannot remember if the expat does.
You will need to take original copies of your leasing agreement for the property you live at. There may even be a form the landlord has to fill in, I can't remember but the cop shop will advise.
Need photocopies of your passport main page and visa.
Total cost so far, about 200rmb.

Now you can buy a car (at any time you can choose a car and if it is not in stock they will order but will require a deposit, not sure how much). I think it is 30% deposit/down-payment required. If needed find a bank to loan you the money. Usually over 3 years, you can get 5 years. GM finance also do loans but are more expensive, and only for GM cars.
Some banks want you to take out loan insurance, not sure how much, but not a lot, and will vary with size of loan.

Pay for car in full, then you can register it. The dealer will usually help with all the process.The dealer, with the vehicle documentation will accompany you to get all the official stuff done.

Insurance agent. There is one in the same area as the Kunming vehicle registration office (call it DMV for ease). Insurance varies on the car. In China it is the car that is insured for any driver, not the driver that is insured. There are different levels of insurance.

Legal minimum is, I think, under 100rmb. This only compensates anyone you kill or injure, basically. Not recommended.
We got fully comprehensive equivalent. If we bend the car, the insurance covers it.

You will be given a certificate and a window sticker (sticker is legal requirement, don't loose it)
Cost of insurance 10.5k for car of value 300k, 3.2 L engine.

Vehicle tax and registration is done at the DMV.
Tax on our car was about 3k, not sure exactly.
We produced our insurance, and registered the car. There is a random numberplate selector on a computer and you have 5 lucky dips and then pick your favourite. You can then get your plates in about half an hour. Or you can try to select a plate of your own, and in a week they will tell you if it is available.

Plates are then given to you and you are given a little Vehicle License Book, you go to another window and you pay a fee, present insurance and they stamp your vehicle license.
Costs, I think under 300 rmb.

The car is now yours.

The dealer can now decorate your car, fit your GPS, tint the windows etc.
Costs unlimited ;-)

I would recommend tinting the windows, and there is a special film for the windscreen that deflects heat. This stops the dashboard from cooking, recommended but will cost more than the rest of the car windows to do.

TOTAL ON THE ROAD COSTS
Depending on the value of the car (small cars are cheaper) the on the road additional costs are about 45k rmb. With tax and insurance. For a car of cost 300k.
I think we were quoted approx on the road costs of 35k for a car of 200k value.

A bit vague on this, sorry.
Your dealer can advise better.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Laowai can teach you Chinese culture

To add to the last posters comments.

I tell my students there are two sides to culture.
What I call high culture: Music, the arts, opera, literature.

And what most of us think of as culture. One useful definition of which is 'How we do things around here'. Which fits in with the last posters observations.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Laowai can teach you Chinese culture

There is a real logic here.
Unless you read up and learn about culture, you are not in a position to teach it.

I had to teach aspects of western culture in my last job. I had to read up a lot, and check some other things that I was not sure about.
I was surprised at how little I knew about my home countries culture. There is far more to culture than just an 'attitude' or gut feeling about your country.

Having studied my own culture I can see how unfit I was to teach it before I studied. My knowledge is still not complete, far from it.

I think that anybody who actively studies Chinese culture is capable of teaching Chinese culture.

Anybody who assumes they can teach others about their own culture without studying it, is naive.

Learning lists of names and dates is not studying culture BTW. That is history, and not very good history knowledge at that.
It is not enough to be able to rattle off a few bits of poetry either.

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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.

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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.

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@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.

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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.