Latest Forum Posts

• • July 6, 2010
    
  • Forums > Living in Kunming > US passport holders needing extra pages...
    

    by the way, does anybody know if i can have pages added a second time in my passport? i've had them added once already but thanks to all these visas i think i'm going to run out again before my passport expires.

    but also i'm pretty annoyed with the line in that e-mail that says "The study, which was the most detailed and exhaustive ever conducted by the Department of State, established the true cost of providing these consular services, which by law must be recovered through collection of fees."

    True cost? Poo. Apart from adding those extra pages in my passport, the entire six years i've been abroad, i don't see what the consulate has done for me. even during the sichuan earthquake they didn't even send out an e-mail until weeks after the fact. and even then it was like, attention, everybody, there's been an earthquake. so this "actual cost?" what are we paying for? employees to reject chinese visa applications?

• • May 9, 2010
    
  • Forums > Travel Yunnan > Rustic Pathways
    

    Oops, I forgot to give the link to the program:
    http://www.rusticpathways.com/china/shaxi.php

• • May 9, 2010
    
  • Forums > Travel Yunnan > Rustic Pathways
    

    Does anybody know about this program? A friend of a friend of a friend is asking whether it's safe for her high-school-aged daughter to participate in the Shaxi Village volunteer program through them. I said it's probably safe but it looks like you're paying an arm and a leg for the pleasure of doing physical labor? Anyway if anybody has had any firsthand experience with this organization and/or in this village, I'd like to know about it. Thanks!

Latest Reviews

• • magentalisted
    July 9, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Mandarin Books
    昆明漫林书苑

    The selection here was disappointing; I came looking for reading material and didn't find anything that inspired me to buy. While that was partly due to the prices of new books (which, admittedly, seem on par with international bookstores in other Chinese cities), I wasn't intrigued at all by the secondhand shelf. Not only was it suffering a hostile takeover by an army of Danielle Steele novels (which I suppose is more the fault of the shop's customers than the shop itself), but also the used books are still 40 to 60 RMB, which is ... well, more than I want to pay for a used book I don't really want to read in the first place. In total, although it's a standalone shop, the selection of foreign-language books seems on par with the foreign-language sections found in larger chain shops like Xinhua around the country. In the end the only thing I bought was a China Daily for 1.5 RMB.

• • magentalisted
    July 9, 2009
    
  • Kunming > French Café
    兰白红

    The food that I tried here was really delicious--nice crusty bread with a generous cupful of cream cheese, thoughtfully served with tomato and cucumber slices for a reasonable price. We didn't have any problems with the service the two times we visited, but I wasn't as impressed by the chai. The tarts are also ridiculously delicious but perhaps too pricey to eat; sidewalk seating is a nice touch.

• • magentalisted
    July 7, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Mingtong Yinxiang Youth Hotel
    明通印象青年酒店

    This hotel is in a fairly central location to Wenlin Jie which seems to be the place to be in Kunming if you're a foreigner, although it's a bit hard to find (look for the China Construction Bank and then head to the top of the hill). The staff are pleasant enough but not overly friendly. The fittings are all very new and clean, although they also happen to look very inexpensive which means they probably won't stay new and clean for very long, especially with the serious ventilation issues in the windowless bathrooms. Also the bathrooms are separated from the rooms by only a glass wall.

• • magentalisted
    July 7, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Teresa's Pizza
    特蕊沙匹萨

    The prices look reasonable when you're looking at them on the menu, but when the food arrives you'll see the portions are small, and the taste is pretty horrid. The one positive thing I can say about them (other than mentioning the misleading fragrant aromas wafting from the kitchen) is that they fully waived the fee for their much-touted "tortellinis with salad" which turned out to be about six jiaozis covered in a mayonnaise-like sauce, accompanied by a few shreds of lettuce.

• • magentalisted
    July 7, 2009
    
  • Kunming > Green Kunming / Salvador's Organics

    Cool idea, good service, good cheese, reasonable prices. Thumbs up!

• 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
• Bakery 88
• Camel Bar
• The Mask
• 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