Forums > Living in Kunming > Used car lots? There is a big one on the way out of Beichen. Follow Beichen DaDao eastwards, past the old B&Q and onto the third ring road. A couple of km up the road on the right is a big car sales area. I am pretty sure it is a car auction place. I may also sell grey imports.
Forums > Living in Kunming > computer advice? There is always Linux, which is open source. The office suite is not as flexible (powerful) as other products, but it is MS Office compatible. Also the range of APPs available for it is smaller than the range of APPs for MS Win OS, but it is getting better.
I have Linux Mint (like windows) on one of my old laptops, and because it is less memory hungry it runs fine on the 15+ years old machine. Because Mint looks similar to a Windows/Mac environment, it is pretty intuitive and pretty easy to adjust too.
I am sure that Linux products and choice of compatibles has moved forward a lot in the 4 years since I had it installed.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Transferring money into China Something I learned a while back, you need to be very specific about the questions you ask, and don't ask open questions.
The BOC employee may have assumed you were talking about cash, in its narrowest sense. You need to specifically state that you want to bring money in to purchase a house. If the bank staff still say no, ask to speak to a manager.
Also make sure you go to the main branch, as sub branch staff (even managers) are often less knowledgeable about their own bank's procedures.
Assuming it is possible for property purchases. If it is done properly, with all of the correct paperwork, you will then have the proper paperwork to take the money out again if you liquidate the property at a future date.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Anyone affected by flooding? Some roads in the xiaoqu were under about 100mm of water before dawn, and houses with basements were affected.
Anyone else affected?
Forums > Living in Kunming > Civilized Kunming On a seperate note. I see they already have the recycle/separation bins for sale in Metro. Not cheap at about 4-5x the price of Taobao.
Trafficking in endangered animals on the rise
Posted byThe guys selling pelts usually arrive in late autumn, all over China. The ones I am thinking of look a bit like frontiersmen, with their fur hats and scrawny black beards. These guys sell dog pelts, they are often sprayed to look like leopard, tiger, etc.
Ancient 'Red Deer Cave' people discovered in Yunnan
Posted byThere is a need for people to update knowledge bases
Darwin's Law of Evolution by Natural Selection (traditionally referred to as a "theory" to honor Darwin's original treatise, but now confirmed through observation and experiment) consists of five main tenets.
www.genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/Darwin.htm
Google of [Darwin's Law] will bring up many scientific websites.
The semantic argument that this is a theory and not a law is out of date.
Yunnan's economy outpacing national average
Posted by@blobbles
It was clear to me that this was a year on year growth. Because growth is always expressed in that way.
Kunming discovers two more fake Apple stores
Posted byI did see a report that although the Apple Stores were fake, the products were not.
If true this is more an argument for Apple to license more resellers.
Kunming orders English added to outdoor signs
Posted by@85 cents. The article says 'only relevant to new signs'. In other words traders won't have to pay for a new sign. But when a new sign is required it needs to be in Pinyin or English, in addition to Hanzi.
This sounds good to me. It will help me find places and improve my Chinese a lot. Why will it improve my Chinese? because I will recognise more words that I have learned in Pinyin (many more than I could in Hanzi) and recognising words will help my language acquisition.
If the words are in English it may also help local kids with their English, in the same manner as Pinyin would help me.
Making the road signs in Pinyin and Chinese was a good idea. It has helped me a lot in navigating the city. Extending the policy to shop signs can only add benefit. And nobody has to buy a new sign.