Latest Comments

• • May 3, 2012
  • Snapshot: Kunming Carnival's Grand Parade
    

    So, no semi naked Brazilians?

• • April 26, 2012
  • Tengchong airport upgrades serviced destinations
    

    Now if Tengchong could just get a little competition it would be nice. The airline has been charging some pretty steep prices so far due to the lack of competition. The 45 minutes TC-KM ride costs the same as a 3 hour KM-BJ one. In other words: I can buy a return London-Beijing for the same money it would cost me to fly from BJ to Tengchong.

• • April 15, 2012
  • Getting Away: Tengchong
    

    Good story yet slightly glossy here and there. Laifeng Mountain is a great place for a drive and a couple of sandwiches and you usually have the place mostly to yourselves. Heshun is adorable, especially around the lakes and ponds on the west side. It's also worth it walking up through the narrow streets where fewer tourists go. Insider tip: You don't actually need to pay the entrance fee if you say you're visiting someone inside or live at one of the guest houses. Alternatively you can turn left at take a side street that will lead you to the back of Heshun where no one is checking you.

    I wonder when you lads went to the wetlands. I've driven past it 3 or 4 times and there never seem to be any water. Maybe there's more during the summer but for a wetlands area it sure felt rather dry. The one near Shangri-La is much much better in comparison.

    Tengchong is also looking increasingly weird with many new jade and residential areas where absolutely no one lives or has set up shop, and they just keep churning them out.

    Tengchong has a relaxed atmosphere compared to many other Yunnan towns and people are nice and generally friendly. There's a sense of community due to the small size of the place that you don't often encounter.

• • April 14, 2012
  • Recipe: A Yunnanese dinner for two
    

    Hear you EjPeter. I miss the Er Kuai a lot. Seems like the only place to get them in Yunnan is Kunming, which is really sad. It's by far my favourite Chinese breakfast snack.

• • April 9, 2012
  • Yunnan spirulina tainted with lead
    

    I know China has a hard time taking a much need Great Leap Forward on Chinese medicine but being allowed to market products with ",,a weight loss product, a palliative for heart disease, an anti-cancer agent and as a health supplement for pregnant women." without documentation and scientific testing is just plain wrong. A former co-worker of mine still has a 3 page folder on some sort of fish extract from Guangdong. He used to joke that it was easier to list the diseases that the stuff DIDN'T cure, according to said folder.

Latest Forum Posts

• • May 23, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > My brand new electric scooter was stolen today
    

    Kunming SWAT hasn't had much to do lately and if their snipers need practice, how about baiting a couple of scooters around town? Sniper on a nearby roof. If some bastard tries to steal it BLAM! Everybody wins.

• • May 19, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > To the person who sent me an anonymous email
    

    Has anyone considered that Crazy.Laowai might be a troll? He's been writing slightly off posts and threads since before he (supposedly) came to Yunnan. Also, he seems to be running into an awful lot of trouble ("Help me buy a scooter!", "Want to pay 100 kuai for a Chinese tutor", "Kunming this and Kunming that", I'm sure you can find more examples easily on his posting history). To be honest, some of his writing reminds me of Gaoxing but of course from a different angle. He's either a bit weird or a troll IMO.

• • May 12, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > Who majored in Finance?
    

    I know nothing about finance whatsoever, but since this is the internet I'm ready to contribute half-baked ideas, clueless assumptions and invent arguments ad hoc. Count me in.

• • May 11, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > Laowai in Beijing trys to rape girl...
    

    Blobbles, I think we're on the same page on some issues here but I feel uncomfortable being lodged in the same camp as the guy from that video. I know it's not your call, but the average passive-aggressive netizen who tends to lump us all together. Not much to be done about that I guess. Furthermore, the guy looks to be British-Asian, probably Pakistani AND he's a pitbull and a cheap 2 litre bottle of cider short of looking like the standard Mancunian drug dealer. I and most expats here have virtually nothing in common with this chav piece of human excrement, so when I read Chinese comments speaking of 'Lao wai scum', 'hunt them down and kill them', 'keep China pure' and 'beat him to death and throw him in the river' I do feel puzzled and rather scared of the ignorance, mob mentality and the general hate ill concealed below a thin layer of apathy you often see on the Chinese internetz against anyone standing out during moments of rage: the rich, the police, foreigners, women, Xinjiang people, the middle class, home owners, people with cars, the Japanese, America, the South China Sea countries. It's a powder keg and too many people are fighting to light the fuse, often on shaky grounds.

• • May 11, 2012
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > Laowai in Beijing trys to rape girl...
    

    "I am trying to stop other lao wai doing the same by reinforcing to all lao wai that this behaviour is not acceptable. I hope this is clear."

    Are we as a group in need of being told not to go around casually raping the locals? I mean, we all do a bit of raping from time to time, that is only to be expected of course, but I'm glad finally being informed that it is in fact not acceptable behaviour. I'll be sure to tell my acquaintances and fellow lao wai to stop the raping immediately.

    As a little counter, here is a lao wai who got beat up by a gang of thieves for trying to help a Chinese girl, while not a single Chinese person helped him and 2 PSB officers refused to intervene because it's not their jurisdiction. http://www.chinasmack.com/[...]

Latest Reviews

• • Danmairen
    June 16, 2011
    
  • Kunming > Russian Goods Store
    俄罗斯商品店

    The comment from Chris had deserved a wider audience. Beluga?

• • Danmairen
    October 11, 2010
    
  • Kunming > Pizza da Rocco
    乐客比萨

    Went there with a couple of colleagues last week for lunch and I found the pizza to be really good. In fact I think it's the best pizza I've had in Kunming thus far and the decor was very nice indeed. "This would be a great place to bring a date" my friend noted. My only small grievance was the price. You'll have to fork over 60-70 kuai a pizza but in return you do get the real thing. One more thing, "austinpickers" wrote in his review that Rocco's didn't have a stone oven. That's not true. I didn't go take a look in the kitchen or anything but our pizzas were definitely made in a real pizza oven.

• • Danmairen
    May 10, 2010
    
  • Kunming > Samoana Café
    沙慕安咖啡屋

    We walked past this place today and decided to have our dinner there. What a good decision that turned out to be. Nice decor, friendly staff and owners and a good selection of reading material. I also

    appreciated that the tables had good space between them as opposed to so many other restaurants here where everything seems so cramped.

    We went for a steak sub (good), Hawaii Burger (great), fries (perfectly fried) and the best milkshake I've had in Kunming. We finished the meal with a cup of good coffee and a really nice piece of chocolate cake. All in all 80 kuai for two people. Excellent value for money and we will definitely go back.

• • Danmairen
    October 4, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Wicker Basket
    馨香烤屋

    Went there yesterday and it totally made my week. Nice decor and friendly staff and a real salad bar. Sadly we both wanted mexican food so I can't really say much about their other courses. The food was great but just a tad spicier would have improved the dish. The best thing was that we almost had the place to ourselves and we could have a quiet conversation without shouting, spitting Chinese people in the background. I realised how much I had missed that since coming here.

• • Danmairen
    July 20, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Chicago Coffee
    芝城咖啡

    We went to Chicago Coffee a couple of days ago and it was a nice experience. The place is cozy with soft comfy chairs (I realized how much I have missed one since coming here) and they have a nice little collection of English language books in the corner consisting mainly of classics and travel litterature. I was looking forward to trying their advertized tortilla bar but it wasn't up and running that evening.

    Instead we went for 2 12 inch pizzas -roast chicken and pepperoni- but we quickly realized that 1 would have been enough. Those things are heavy. I am mainly into Italian style pizza but Chicago's double layered pizzas are well worth a try. Their coffee seems to be a bit on the expensive side but people say good things about it and they have got a nice selection. I wouldn't mind dropping by again some day,, hopefully when they've got the tortilla thing going. English speaking staff btw.

• The Old Theatre Inn
• Lost Garden Guesthouse & Restaurant
• Chicago Coffee
• Kunming Mei's Mandarin School
• As You Like
• Keats School
• Moondog
• GoKunming
• YMCA Club 1933
• Slice of Heaven
• Kingsway Tented Resorts
• Camel Bar
• The Mask
• Bakery 88
• Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture
• My Favor Restaurant
• Chapter One
• Wonders Of Yunnan Travel
• O'Reilly's Irish Pub
• Salvador's Coffee House
• Wangtianshu Restaurant & Deli
• Tenwest Mandarin School
• Cacao Mexican Restaurant
• Flying Tigers Restaurant
• Kunming Yu-Cong Enterprise Management Company
• Huiying Dental Clinic