Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming's tripadvisor problem @Ishmael, not disgusting, just the real world. All of us currently enjoy lots of 'free to view' content. Without revenue streams to support these they would be behind 'pay walls'. As has happened to a lot of newspaper and other sites that cannot gather enough 'card carrying' or other revenues.
GoKunming is supported by card carrying revenue, at least. Another site I am involved with is supported by member donations.
Forums > Living in Kunming > International Labor Day China will be celebrating May 4th this year. I have just seen it on the telly.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming's tripadvisor problem This is common practice. You can pay to get bumped up almost any search results list on most browsers, and have been able to for many years. It is also a major source of revenue for sites like trip adviser. These sites are independent review bodies, they are companies and that means that their main purpose is to make money. That is how your 'free to access' information is paid for.
Forums > Study > research in China Having followed this thread over the past couple of days, a few new thoughts spring to mind.
Usually in China people will not say no, as they do not want to be the bringer of bad news. They just don't get back to you. Sound familiar?
As for annoying people, I think that will get you nowhere, and could well put up barriers. You might be able to corner someone face to face. They may even say yes, and then they will do nothing and become un-contactable.
Are you doing undergrad, masters, or doctoral/post-doc research? If it is the first two, I doubt you would get a response.
Someone also mentioned 'guanxi', in China it is not what you know but who you know.
Remember, just because you really want to do something, and that it may even be of value, does not mean that others are obliged to help in any way whatsoever, and altruism is not common.
Anyone who might be in a position to help you will also consider that anything that might shine a light into a dark corner may cause them, or their bosses, some loss of face and they will not want to get involved, unless they are ordered to from above.
If you really want to do research on Chinese subjects, you will probably need to work with secondary data, if you can get access to it. This way you can work on your own.
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.