This morning at 10:30 the bustle of Wenhua Xiang's cafes and restaurants was violently interrupted by an explosion at Salvador's Coffee House.

We have spoken with Salvador's co-owner Colin Flahive several times since the explosion and he has confirmed that the explosion was set off by a man who had entered the restaurant with an explosive device.

Flahive said that none of the staff or customers present at Salvador's this morning were seriously injured and that the man with the explosive device had suffered serious injuries.

Few details about the incident are currently available. Salvador's has been sealed off by police, who have been investigating the scene since shortly after the explosion.

This is the first bombing attack in Kunming since the double bus bombings that killed two and injured 14 in June of this year.

Update: Kunming media is now reporting that a man - presumably the man with the bomb - has died in a local hospital.

A branch of the popular Wenhua Xiang eatery Guozi Lou (锅子楼) sustained severe fire damage after a gas canister in the kitchen exploded at 9:10 pm last Friday night. Members of the kitchen staff suffered burns to their hair and clothes, though no serious injuries have been reported in local media coverage of the fire.

After unsuccessfully attempting to put out the fire with an in-house extinguisher, kitchen staff immediately notified local police who dispatched several fire trucks to the scene. According to eyewitness accounts, no customers were dining at the time, and the flames were extinguished before any further damage or injuries occurred.

Residents living above the restaurant reported that flames reached as high as the fourth story, damaging windowpanes and anti-theft window bars located on apartment balconies. At Guozi Lou itself, the front door became unhinged and the restaurant sign was almost completely destroyed with only one character remaining (see above image).

One observer noted that the damage would have been far worse had the local police not dispersed cars parked on Wenhua Xiang, thus allowing firemen unfettered access to the disaster site.

Friday's fire was the third to strike a Wenhua Xiang restaurant in the past two years. According to residents, all three were caused by gas canister explosions. A local resident surnamed Huang remarked, "Not only do we have to deal with loud noise and street lamps, but now we're under regular threat from restaurant fires."

There was no word from local authorities regarding whether measures will be implemented to prevent a repeat of Friday's near-disaster. As of this writing, all Wenhua Xiang Guozi Lou branches are closed indefinitely.

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Two friendly police officers wandered along Wenhua Xiang in the sunshine this afternoon handing out notices written in Chinese and English announcing an open day at the Wenlin police station tomorrow.

The event starts at 10am, and will allow interested public to "visit officers' offices, living rooms, dining room, and other places" and "learn basic circumstances about China's police". Visitors will also be able to ask questions and are welcome to bring cameras with them.

Wenlin police station is at 49 Wenhua Xiang (opposite the small car park on the corner).

Less than ten years ago, bicycles still ruled the streets of Kunming. Today almost any place in the city is susceptible to serious congestion and traffic jams. In 2000 the Yunnan Daily ran this assessment of Kunming's traffic situation:

"In general, traffic in downtown Kunming cannot be considered congested. The roads are relatively wide and expansive and quite clean. But during the morning and afternoon rush hours, the phenomenon of traffic congestion occasionally arises."

Today, as the Yunnan Daily notes, the streets of Kunming - which covers an area of 200 square kilometers - are choking on the nearly 700,000 motorized vehicles in the city.

The Kunming Municipal Planning and Design Research Institute (昆明市规划设计研究院) has released a list of road projects intended to ameliorate the worsening congestion in certain 'hot areas' in Kunming. Work on the projects is scheduled to commence by the end of this month. Here's a breakdown of some of the projects that are expected to start soon:

Wenhua Xiang

Current State: Perhaps best known for its wide variety of Chinese and international-themed restaurants (Indian, Korean, Japanese, American, Vietnamese, etc), Wenhua Xiang - literally 'Culture Alley' in Chinese - is also home to numerous clothing and crafts stores.

Busy day and night, Wenhua Xiang is a traffic nightmare, with a narrow alley serving as a two-way street - often leading to standoffs between cars that meet in the alley with no way to get around each other. Wenhua Xiang also connects Yieryi Da Jie with Wenlin Jie and is an access road for some of Kunming's most important schools including Yunnan University, Yunnan Normal University Affiliated Middle School and Kunming Experimental Middle School.

Proposed Solution: The overhead power lines crisscrossing Wenhua Xiang will be buried underground, which will require tearing up the alley between the PSB and Wenlin Jie. A pedestrian pathway shall be created and more than 1,150 square meters of two-story commercial space shall be demolished. Although no specific demolition sites are mentioned, it would appear that this means the stretch of space including Bangkok Café, Watami, Yunjoy and other restaurants and stores.

Xinwen Lu

Current State: Congested by car and bicycle traffic, Xinwen Lu ranges from five to eight meters wide. Add the numerous commercial stalls in certain sections and cars parking on both sides of the street and the result is a road that is often simply impassable.

Proposed Solution: Xinwen Lu will be widened to a maximum of 20 meters - the bridge crossing the Daguan River will also be widened. Xinwen Lu and Daguan Lu will be converted into complementary one-way streets passing through both ring roads. The objective of these measures is to ease traffic flow in and out of the southwest of Kunming especially on Dianchi Lu.

Other Projects

• Streets and alleys around the Daguan Commercial Building - including Jiahua Xiang, Qingfeng Jie and Xi'an Ma Lu - will all be renovated and widened to ease congestion in the area as well as the intersection of Xichang Lu and Renmin Xi Lu.

• Danxia Lu and Liangyuan Lu will be widened and connected, eliminating a major dead end in the city's west.

• Xihua Bei Lu and Xiba Lu will be connected and widened to 30 meters. Pedestrian lanes, green space and parking spaces will also be added.

• Jinhuapu Lu will be extended to Daguan Lu, with both roads widened near the connecting segment.

Related Link:

Kunming Map

The Cyclown Circus (aka Too Dumb to Die) is back in Kunming after spending the winter in Southeast Asia. Early this afternoon they rolled into Wenhua Xiang, set up on some steps across from The Box and put on a street performance the likes of which most Kunmingers (and local laowai) have never seen in Kunming.

During the winter the bicycle-mounted jazz circus spent time traveling through Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Some of the troupe decided to push on toward Bali in Indonesia, while three chose to head north and return to Yunnan. The last time they were in Kunming - in early December of last year - the group had just cycled down from Beijing and found receptive audiences for their street performances as well as their show at Speakeasy Bar.

Tomorrow (Sunday) night the Cyclowns will be back at the Speakeasy with a guitar, clarinet and double upright bass - which they amazingly take with them on their bicycles as they ride around Eurasia. The free show starts at 10pm.

Kunming has undergone a bit of a makeover in recent weeks since the beginning of citywide demolition of lean-tos and small stores in between larger buildings.

In some places, such as the row of cheap printing and copy shops on Yieryi Da Jie on the north side of Yunnan University, the demolition has continued. It does seem like there is something afoot with this particular plot of land as a wall has begun to go up.

For most demolition sites, the public bathroom on Wenhua Xiang for example, demolition was quickly followed by the planting of trees, shrubs and flowers. While most people don't object to the replacement of a public toilet's miasma with a patch of green, for Wenhua Xiang restaurants and bars - most of which have minimal plumbing incapable of handling the 'big convenience' - this raises the question of where customers can go when nature calls.

[FYI, the closest public toilets to Wenhua Xiang are now the one on central Wenlin Jie at Xiansheng Po and the little one tucked away in Tianjundian Xiang in the alley connecting Paul's with Wenlin Jie.]

Wheatfield Bookstore, one of the more popular shops demolished a few weeks ago, has relocated and is reopening today. The new location is opposite Paul's Shop in Tianjundian Xiang. Word on the street is there will be customer giveaways.

Wheatfield Bookstore
麦田书店
Address: Tianjundian Xiang
天君殿巷
Phone: 653 3912, 159 8711 3281

Top image: Xiao Yang

Tenants of the dining and shopping development known as 'Kunming Foreigner Street' have had enough, it seems.

A dozen of the tenants in the new development located inside popular dining and shopping alley Wenhua Xiang (or 'Culture Alley' in Chinese) are displaying bright red signs which state: "Investing here is extremely risky; investors please be extremely cautious."

Some tenants have gone further, hanging banners which accuse Kunming Foreigner Street developer Wuxin Realty of "maliciously trapping" tenants in a bad investment.

This is but the latest twist in the Kunming Foreigner Street saga. The plot of land was once a vibrant - albeit rundown - collection of homes, stores, bars and restaurants, including the first Pizza da Rocco. In 2005 the plot was razed and work began on the development, which was named after the popular Foreigner Street in Dali.

During its construction, the plot was surrounded by a wall of advertisements for the development featuring laughable English misspellings plus photos of beautiful Chinese women, well-dressed and inebriated foreigners and high-end developments including Shanghai's Xintiandi. Nearly a year later, a bright yellow and brownish-red behemoth was unveiled to an unimpressed public.

Many area residents were already upset with the development because of the tendency for noisy construction and deliveries of gravel, bricks, rebar and cement to take place as late as 3am. Rumors of loud nightclubs and karaoke bars moving in had also created a general wariness of what was to come.

Restaurants and shops began moving into Kunming Foreigner Street early this year, but more construction was necessary, as all the spaces were unfinished. This meant more noise for locals as tenants worked on finishing and adding onto the concrete boxes they were provided.

Once the majority of tenants had begun commercial operations, restaurants began offering sidewalk seating and also put carts selling foods including smoked meats and ice cream out on the sidewalk. The development was not equipped with any garbage disposal system, so tenants were left to dump their trash in the street, or more popularly, in front of the existing businesses closer to Wenlin Jie that had made Wenhua Xiang one of Kunming's more popular streets.

In late spring, more than 100 retired professors from Yunnan Normal University who live in a residential area behind Kunming Foreigner Street filed a petition with the local government asking for the development to be cleaned up. Shortly afterward, all outdoor seating was banned, and a trash removal system in the form of a man on a three-wheeled cart with a snow shovel were introduced.

The outdoor seating ban stung Kunming Foreigner Street's restaurants, many of whom were getting much of their business through sidewalk dining. Many tenants have cited Wuxin Realty's promise of outdoor seating rights as one of the main reasons they decided to gamble on what is some of the city's most expensive commercial real estate.

Now, feeling cheated and trapped, Kunming Foreigner Street's restaurants and shops are giving potential tenants dire warnings of the risks involved in the development. This episode is a good example of the palpable tensions between developers, tenants, area residents and the local government. We're not property experts, but it seems passing some rational zoning laws plus strengthening and enforcing sanitation regulations would go a long way in this town.

For more on this story in Chinese, read here.