Forums > Living in Kunming > teeth cleaning in kunming? should I? I've also been to the Huiying clinic. Excellent work and no pain during the cleaning. I had some work done there on my previous visit to Kunming, then had the work checked by a dentist in Toronto who is a teacher at the U of Toronto dental college. She said it was excellent work.
I'll be back there this week for a root canal. It's the only place I would trust in Kunming.
All their dentists speak English which is a real bonus for me.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Marrying a local... I guess we did things the easy way. My wife is a Kunming girl, but we got married in Las Vegas!
Forums > Living in Kunming > Visa extension in Chiang Mai, Thailand We did L class visas in Chiang Mai last November. The consulate was very efficient - but.....
1. Standard time for completion is on the 4th day. You can pay a fee for faster service, including same day.
2. When we were there the consulate was closed on what would have been the 4th day. Not sure why.
3. Be careful getting there. I had a TukTuk driver who thought I said 'Condo', not 'Consulate' and got driven all over the place. This was critical since I was trying to get there before closing time on the only day I could go.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Looking for list of decent private schools in KM to work at I've actually heard a lot of BAD things about Henderson. They've been in the news quite a bit the past few months for overcharging clients or charging for services where fees were not stated up front. It's got the locals in a snit and looking for other schools as well as generating a few law suits.
New visa and residence regulations for the PRC
Posted byOK, lots of changes and new information we need to know about. Let me start by answering my own question.
If you are here on an L Visa, visiting family, then you can change to the Q or S Visa without going out of China. Also, since those two Visa classes lead to a residence permit they will do the residence permit at the same time as the Visa so no extra trip to the PSB is needed.
The Q Visa
Yesterday my wife and I went to the PSB. She recently got a new passport and her Visa was about to expire today. Here's what we learned:
First of all, my wife is here to take care of her sister who is seriously disabled after a major stroke. That's no problem for the Visa, however, they now wanted proof of the relationship which we never had to provide before! That required a trip to the police station to have them go through the archives (manual records - not computer) to find that information. I was quite impressed that they located it in only 10 minutes.
Back to the PSB with that new information. They now told my wife she could get a 1 year Q visa (that would be a Q1) but to get a 2 year she would need to go to a specific hospital to get a health certificate. It's nice to know about this but we just didn't have time with the current Visa expiring, but next time ....
The S Visa
I just have to prove my relationship with my wife to get the S Visa with the same expiry as my wife. I'm guessing they'll also want the health certificate for a 2 year. For many years now they've just been accepting our marriage certificate. Now they want that certificate notarized by the consulate. That means I have to make a trip to Chongqing (Canadian Consulate) to get that done at a greater expense than a taxi trip to the PSB. I'll need to phone and ensure that the Canadian consulate will do this for a marriage certificate issued in Las Vegas or do I then need to go to the American consulate in Chengdu as well?
The new rules seem a bit strange, but in the long term will be quite a bit more convenient for us. Also, if they're issuing longer term visas then there should be (eventually) a reduction in the workload at the PSB.
New visa and residence regulations for the PRC
Posted byIt also does not address which of the VISAs may be issued (on renewal) here in Kunming. For example, can my wife and I change from L visa to Q and S without having to leave Kunming?
Shangri-la hit by 5.9 earthquake
Posted by"Travellers in affected areas have been asked to leave until blocked roads are reopened"
If the roads are blocked, how will the travellers leave?
Beijing attempts to curtail "excessive" government spending
Posted byThis is not a uniquely Chinese problem either. It seems people in government jobs all over the world follow the patter. In Canada and the US the politicians like to claim there is no corruption, while at the same time they all have their "entitlements", like free lunches, apartments and limousines at the tax payers expense.
Toronto councilors even made trips to Shanghai to "study" the transit system, then went home and did nothing with it.
Dragon Boat Festival
Posted byPeople may have three consecutive days off work or school, but they went to work or school on Saturday and Sunday to make up for some of that lost time.