Hi there, we've been working to furnish our new place here recently after moving back to town so I have just been going through this personally.
The recommendation of the second hand furniture market near Huangtupo is a good one - they have lots of stuff there, including non-furniture and non second-hand items (bikes, bins, appliances, etc.). Personally I find most new furniture stores are ultra expensive. Taobao is good if you know what you want and don't need to see it in person.
There is a huge furniture store complex (about 5 levels of 30 stores per level) in the east of town near the expo garden called 得胜家居.世博店 ... just say shízhálìjiāoqiáo (石闸立交桥 ... ie. "stone sluice-gate overpass") to get there, it's the whole eastern corner of the intersection (perhaps not immediately visible behind some trees). They have everything.
There are a bunch more around town but they are pretty equivalent.
You said you had issues with delivery costs quoted. If I'm not mistaken, any decent furniture store should deliver either free or very cheaply. They may however want to charge you by the truck rather than by the object, which is likely just a sales tactic. As a general upper bound on cost or failing that if you buy lots of stuff from different stores in the same area you can use a removalist company like 蚂蚁搬家 (mayibanjia: 'ant removals') who will do a quick trip with a few objects for about 400RMB or so, give or take, depending on hassle factor (access) and items.
Another option you can explore if you need quite a few pieces is to have someone build custom furniture for you. It's actually a lot cheaper than you might think (way cheaper than buying individual mass-produced factory type plywood crappo items in furniture stores) and you can get exactly the size you want.
Expensive to fly to Vietnam or Laos, Cambodia prices vary. Chiang Mai return including tax is 1700RMB at the moment (China Eastern). Bangkok is usually a bit over 100USD each way with Air Asia. Vietnam is cheap and easy to reach overland but it takes effectively 2 days or a full day and night to get to Hanoi. There is a new super fast train line from Yuxi to Hekou, not sure if it's open yet.
We had previously had experience and information regarding some hospitals in Bangkok as we lived there for a year until about a year before the birth.
Based on that first and second hand information we settled on BNH Hospital, which we felt maintained a comfortable balance between serving wealthier locals and foreigners and a correspondingly international standard of service. The location was relatively accessible too, we stayed down the road near Wat Khek which has good Chinese, Indian, Middle Eastern and western food. We actually did a bulk time deal with a 5 star place there (on the logic that a good breakfast buffet would be beneficial in late pregnancy) but moved in to a less over the top place shortly after the birth, then after considering and writing off the islands on account of lack of decent medical service availability extracted ourselves to Chiang Mai where there is less air pollution (for part of the year, at least) to await passports for our daughter that would enable us to return to China.
None of us had or have any medical insurance at all, and we did not find this was a problem, in fact it saved time and hassle we would otherwise have been lumbered with.
Our previous experiences included Samathivej and Bangkok Hospital. We decided against the Bumrun'grad hospital as both locals and foreigners asserted it was too comfortably ensconced as the 'go to' hospital for expats and inbound medical tourists (many from the Middle East), thus overpriced and relatively lacking in service.
We also flew my mother in law down awhile before the birth which was a memorable experience for her (lots of new food!) and a good way to deal with concerns from extended family.
Yelp1719: Have photographs, send me an email or private message and I can probably email them to you. For copyright reasons I wont post them online. (Nat Geo still try to sell their really old photos!)
I uncovered a really interesting article in an old national geographic about the American GIs of the period.
At night they used to drive their jeeps to a nightclub called the 'United Nations Club' and drink 'air raid juice' which was probably baijiu and apparently resulted in their inability to find their way home.
Nice to see some things haven't changed, even if it's the locals now driving and the Americans catch taxis.
The sense that Singapore is a general soul-free zone, fake democracy cum dynastic oligarchy carved deceitfully out of a platform of popular communism, and general US military ally and all 'round lackey.
Someone should tell her to go to the AIRPORT, an EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT, the BANK, or the GOVERNMENT ... people with a spare 300k don't hang out in train stations.
bexkmg: Better to get a bus out of town, eg. from south bus station to Chengjiang or Yuxi. Personally I would recommend cycling from Chengjiang (where I usually live), down the east side of Fuxian lake, then there's a hilly section! If you prefer relative flat with less impressive scenery and more traffic, do the west side instead, via Jiangchuan. After either route, you should get to Tonghai. From Tonghai, there are two roads - the direct highway (veer left at the top of the hill; probably an old version of which also exists), or one of the best roads in the whole province, the road to Shiping (veer right at the top of the hill). The road to Shiping has lots of hills but is extremely beautiful and has a really long downward slope toward the end. Very little traffic, excellent surface, wild scenery. Once you're near Shiping, just head east in to Jianshui (via the bridge, Tuanshan, etc. which lie half-way between the two towns). Once there, you may as well continue on the old road to Gejiu (low traffic again) via swallow cave, then get up early in the morning to illegally cycle (with lights for safety!) through the tunnel to the south of Gejiu and enjoy the tropical descent to the Red River valley. Left for Vietnam, right for Yuanyang rice terraces (bit more up to go!)
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US Ambassador to China visits Yunnan
Posted byPeter99: Unsurprising. Source?
Yelp1719: Have photographs, send me an email or private message and I can probably email them to you. For copyright reasons I wont post them online. (Nat Geo still try to sell their really old photos!)
US Ambassador to China visits Yunnan
Posted byI uncovered a really interesting article in an old national geographic about the American GIs of the period.
At night they used to drive their jeeps to a nightclub called the 'United Nations Club' and drink 'air raid juice' which was probably baijiu and apparently resulted in their inability to find their way home.
Nice to see some things haven't changed, even if it's the locals now driving and the Americans catch taxis.
Oil pipeline connects Kunming to Andaman Sea
Posted byThe sense that Singapore is a general soul-free zone, fake democracy cum dynastic oligarchy carved deceitfully out of a platform of popular communism, and general US military ally and all 'round lackey.
Woman offers marriage in exchange for brother's healthcare
Posted byOutside the TRAIN STATION?
Fail.
Someone should tell her to go to the AIRPORT, an EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT, the BANK, or the GOVERNMENT ... people with a spare 300k don't hang out in train stations.
Jianshui: southern Yunnan's cultural gem
Posted bybexkmg: Better to get a bus out of town, eg. from south bus station to Chengjiang or Yuxi. Personally I would recommend cycling from Chengjiang (where I usually live), down the east side of Fuxian lake, then there's a hilly section! If you prefer relative flat with less impressive scenery and more traffic, do the west side instead, via Jiangchuan. After either route, you should get to Tonghai. From Tonghai, there are two roads - the direct highway (veer left at the top of the hill; probably an old version of which also exists), or one of the best roads in the whole province, the road to Shiping (veer right at the top of the hill). The road to Shiping has lots of hills but is extremely beautiful and has a really long downward slope toward the end. Very little traffic, excellent surface, wild scenery. Once you're near Shiping, just head east in to Jianshui (via the bridge, Tuanshan, etc. which lie half-way between the two towns). Once there, you may as well continue on the old road to Gejiu (low traffic again) via swallow cave, then get up early in the morning to illegally cycle (with lights for safety!) through the tunnel to the south of Gejiu and enjoy the tropical descent to the Red River valley. Left for Vietnam, right for Yuanyang rice terraces (bit more up to go!)