The 101 reasons to live in China thread was so hot and creative, I thought that this one would quickly catch fire too.

Here are another three from me to get the ball rolling again.

12. Fresh figs in late summer. Grown in abundance in nearby Fumin and always super sweet.
13. Malatang soup. A great healthy lunch for less that ten kuai
14. Chocolate coated biscuits from Wicker baskets. Not sure why they are banana shaped but they are the ultimate breakfast treat.

Do not tell me Kunming is not great for bargains. Otherwise why would we all like it here so much?

Can I recommend Keith Lyons who has recently expanded his tour guide business from Yunnan to Burma.
Here is an article he wrote here about Lijiang where he currently is the number one guide..
www.gokunming.com/en/blog/item/2787/getting_away_lijiang
Check out his fantastic reviews on Tripadvisor.
www.tripadvisor.co.uk/[...]

He is in Burma at the moment on a property buying trip, and I sure that he would be happy to help you out.
I traveled with him Burma earlier in the year and it was a wonderful experience.
You can email him direct at keithalyons at gmail.com

Taken from a travel book

Kunming
The city's bloodiest period occurred during the Qing dynasty, with a series of Muslim rebellions. Between 1648 and 1878, more than twelve million Hui and Uighur Muslims were killed in ten unsuccessful uprisings against the Qing Dynasty.

Guizhou
By that time the empire had relocated so many eastern Chinese colonists to this unforgiving land that the province's population had soared from 65 to 150 million. A series of rebellions was dealt with mercilessly by succeeding generations of Tunpuren, or Han military colonists. Eighteen-thousand Miao were killed in 1732, with almost the same number executed and a similar amount enslaved. More than 100 years later the scenario was repeated. The governor of Guizhou wrote that the province had lost nine-tenths of its entire population in just 2 decades, either massacred or exiled to the hills of northern Laos, Burma, and Thailand.

A closer look at the map reveals how these proud, defiant peoples have been dominated and humiliated by Chinese colonists. Name after name stands out like marker flags on a campaign plan: Anshun (Peace and Submission); Liping (Pacification of the Li); Zhenyuan (Pacification of the Distant Tribes); Guiding (Pacification of Guizhou); Luodian (Extension of Imperial Power); and Kaili (Village of the Victory Song).

The Fifty Best Buys in Kunming

While prices have certainly risen dramatically over the last ten years in Kunming, there are still plenty of great bargains out there. I will start off here with three of my own and then maybe you can add a couple more and we will see if together we can make it up to fifty.

7. Home Made Cookies – 8 Kuai – Paul's, Just Behind Wenlin Jie
Probably my favourite dunking cookies ever, with just that slight saltiness that goes well with sweet coffee. There are occasionally cheaper cookies out at Samoana but that is a long way out of town.
8. Army Surplus – Knock-down Prices – Beijing Road outside the Barracks
If you are going on a camping trip, this is the best place to buy all your outdoor gear. Forget those poncey places that sell fake North Face and Columbia that never lasts, this surplus stuff will last a lifetime. If it is good enough for the PLA, then it is good enough for me.

9. Photocopying – 0.5 kuai per double side page – Outside the Minorities University
China is a dead zone for book lovers but why worry when you can download just about any book you want in PDF, Word or Mobi format and knock out a copy at the print shop. 400 pages works out at about twenty kuai. So fire up emule, soulseek or torrents and get to work on your own personal library.

Ever since the Economist did an article about cosplay in China called -
"There is cash in Chinese comic-book conventions"
www.economist.com/node/21525442

I have been really interested in these events as an entrepreneurial opportunity.
There were about 800,000 at the Guangzhou con that I went to. Compare this to 150,000 tops at the recent Comic Com in San Diego, which is the biggest show in the US, then the potential is great indeed.