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.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Carrefour Giving Up On China Tesco did have a JV in China, but they pulled out several years ago.
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.
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).
Forums > Living in Kunming > Bike registered - Selling second hand It looks like the police are actively trying to phase out the older machines.
Venerable foreigner health check clinic moves to new location
Posted byI often turn up after 10 and the queues have gone by then. I turned up early a couple of times and have had to fight with large groups of Chinese getting their medical. One time a tourist group, another time I think was a gang of migrant workers.
Law prohibits new shared bike companies from coming to Kunming
Posted byLooking at the link in the last post. Really got me thinking about the carbon footprint of all the share bikes in China. Following on from that the footprint of all of the disposed of share bikes. If we remember these bikes are mostly steel, the production has a considerable environmental effect. These bikes seem to be disposable, which begs a question about the sustainability of the business model as well.
An astronomical monster grows in Guizhou
Posted byAstronomical monsters are often built in the middle of nowhere. Less interference from human activity. Guizhou fitted the bill.
If I was developing super computers, I would expect to do it somewhere where I could work secretly. I would also want physical security for something that will become a vital part of the telecoms/economic infrastructure. Guizhou has a history of building secure facilities inside mountains.
On a slightly different note, Guizhou seems to be developing must faster than Yunnan and may even have overtaken it. Guiyang has transformed itself in the last 15 years, and seems to have already overtaken Kunming. Some people were obviously very hard at work, while others were resting on their laurels.
Law prohibits new shared bike companies from coming to Kunming
Posted byAt last, some common sense effort to rein in the madness.
Inspired relaxation at Yunnan's Fuxian Lake
Posted byAddendum. These peddle boats seat up to 7. The water is very high quality. The sun sets later on the east side. On the west you have the mountains shadow and loose the sun much earlier in the day.