Wish you luck, the whole visa game is rather tiring.

Sounds like you want MTB for tricks and stuff, not just the being in nature part.

For the half the year when it's open, Changchongshan in central north Kunming is great. It's the only place I've seen proper jumps set up except where I'm guessing you probably went, which is southwest sort of behind Xishan.

Depends what you want done. You can either print on a canvas style poster (which means limited resolution of printing, typically not more than 150dpi but often 75dpi) at a huge size, or you can print on another material at a limited size but still for instance A3 or greater. The second option means you can have really good resolution .. ie. when you look at it up close it is very detailed instead of spotty.

If your source image is digital, it's likely not that high resolution to warrant physically large printing at a high DPI. If your source image is an existing analog print (ie. photograph) and not a huge one, then same deal. If your source image is a slide, negative, or large photograph then you might have enough data to warrant high DPI and large size.

Generally speaking, the shop on Wenhuaxiang (roughly opposite the Yunnan University Hotel) is pretty good in my experience. Most places will give you a reasonable job.

Things to watch:

- they might damage the source

- the color reproduction may not be to your liking, and this is very hard to control ... in China, almost nobody operates color controlled processes for their editing, display and print ... so it's a bit of a pot-shot

- they might use dodgy paper or medium

- usually they use cheap aftermarket noname ink sources which can vary in quality considerably

After giving a damn about all of this stuff for too long, I just splashed out and bought an expensive printer for myself. But it's at Fuxian lake, not in Kunming.

I've found quite a few trails while doing weekend rides with the Xiong Brothers. Rides start 10AM on Saturdays from their shop on Beimenjie. Did one yesterday to Xishan - very good downhill trails there, but some are very dangerous when wet! Be prepared for a fall...

Also don't know if you're interested but I'm selling my bike at the moment since I've moved to the US, see pratyeka.org/kunmingmtb/

gt-rider maps are available in chiang mai (i think the guy lives there).

xinhua is usually crap for overseas maps, but there is one chinese publishing house that does laos maps (in chinese) that are stocked by some xinhua stores.

there aren't really that many roads in laos, so it's not so much of an issue to use general maps (either purchased in laos or something online).

the road south-west from the border through luang namtha is new and in really good condition, but i think the most interesting area might be phongsali (north-east corner)

have fun and good luck!