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Forums > Living in Kunming > Finding a mountain bike on a budget

I suppose the two big questions are, what are you going to do with it and what is your budget?

Will it be mostly commuting, or road riding, with some soft-roading? Will it be riding around in the hills on dirt tracks? Will there be furious downhill riding?

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Forums > Study > Where to study in Yunnan

The main names you see you here are Keats, Huayang, and another I can't recall. They are all much of a muchness. Remember that they all pretty much have the same business model, and they all compete with each other, so that their prices and class sizes will be similar. If you have already studied Chinese you will probably have a preference for teaching style. It might be worth explaining your ideal, or what you prefer not to have, then you may get information from a recent student.

One other thing to consider is cost of living, and style of living. It helps if you can rent somewhere convenient to the school at an affordable price.

Dali Vs Kunming is a wider question. One key thing to consider is that Dali no longer has much of the quiet mountain city vibe. It is now a quaint but fully blown tourist

town. With all of the modern trappings of bijou stores and even some high end retail. Lots of crowds all year round. You are more likely to locals see you as a tourist (cash cow) than a novelty (also can get annoying).

Kunming is much more of a modern city and has become more international in the years I have been here. It is a bit like Shanghai was 15 years ago.

One final note, this has been discussed a lot on this site over the last few years. A search would help a lot. The search engine on this site is not ideal, try a google search using the following text
site:gokunming.com subject
The subject being your search term, e.g. 'huayang'

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Comments

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If they worry about cost, and only provide minimum service until things pay for themselves, then they will always be in a debt cycle. For example, if the service only runs the cheapest (minimal) service from 9-5 people cannot possibly use it for work. They screw themselves.

There is a real need to bite the bullet. Then the best returns can be realised, only if they take the risk and run the service as a viable alternative to driving. Short term loss will be high, but utilisation will follow very quickly.

There is a need to follow the models of service provision in Shanghai and Beijing, but accept that the break even point in Kunming will take longer to realise. However, if you don't, the losses will continue for many years.

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Not sure, but would that be transiting? I think transit ticket is for an onward journey to a third country.
Perhaps you could fly from somewhere, via Kunming, to HK or vice vesa.

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Shanghai and Beijing are also major business hubs and doing a few days extra business, while breaking a long haul trek, makes sense. Also, both cities are tourist centres in themselves.

Kunming is neither. Kunming wants to be a trade centre with ASEAN, but that is not yet happening. Kunming is not really a destination, more of a spring board to Yunnan (which you cannot do in 3 days). All you can really do is play golf, which some people do.

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I think the crime was getting caught, and so publically. Getting caught on camera and having it go viral is an embarrassment to gov. This is not good for social order.
There has also been a trend towards more unruly behaviour at airports, some of which have gone viral (like the Shandong woman in Guangzhou airport). This case in Kunming might be an exemplory/detterent sentencing.
Either way, it is a step in the right direction.

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.