Heard a rumour that our leader is in town, visiting the seagulls? Anyone know anything more?

Don't know anything more detailed but my wife did say the same, he is in town :)

That was yesterday,as he visited Yunnan, on his back from an overseas trip. If you noticed less traffic downtown during rush hour it was because they were controlling the inflow of traffic on the radial routes outside of the ring road.
I think today he has moved on.

He was visiting Ludian county in Monday and probably passed by Kunming.

Too bad he is gone already, would've liked to ask him about the reason for the recent unreasonable increasing c-e-n-s-o-r-s-h-i-p/b-l-o-c-k-i-n-g... just got a not so nice message on A-s-t-r-i-l-l stating the following:

"Due to increased c-e-n-s-o-r-s-h-i-p in C-H-I-N-A this year, V-P-N protocols used on iOS devices (IPSec, L2TP/IPSec, PPTP) are blocked in almost real-time. Intercepting and interfering with f-o-r-e-i-g-n email services like g-m-a-i-l, targeting IPSec which is mainly used by companies, is just a way of C-H-I-N-A to say "We don't want you here". We know how access to u-n-r-e-s-t-r-i-c-t-e-d Internet is important for you and we are doing our best. Due to a lot of emails, our support is slower than usual, so please be patient."

I know the guys from A-S-T-R-I-L-L are working on the solutions but it's like a race between them and the B-A-D guys. In my time in C-H-I-N-A the first years there was no need for a V-P-N. Now even googlePlay/g-m-a-i-l is not easy to access via V-P-N. And if it's possible the connection is somewhat slowing down or even breaking up... no wonder companies are searching for alternative places.

@Cromson, when I read your mail, I could hear a stutterer guy talking, very f-u-n ;)
Now, my real interrogation is that you purposely "coded" some words that you judged they may be suspicious for the government, which is the first time I see someone doing that (but only 2 years in CHina). I myself never was so careful (I thought only if you organized a strike on something, you could be really in the s...). What do you think about it? I am really curious

Mr. Xi was in Dali the other day as well. Apparently his trip has something to do with supporting Chinese minority cultures.

@paulwind6
It doesn't really matter if you're planning something against big brother or just want to surf the net like you're used to from home. They have the tech and manpower available to filter/b-l-o-c-k randomly. My guess is they just plug into the net-providers main-source (in/out). Funny thing is, most of the tech they're using is made in the good ol' USofA. ;) But however, it is and will always be a race between "secure" and "make it available". I know very well that every country does have different laws and we can't complain about just because it's not like at home. But if someone from above could explain why there is a need to b-l-o-c-k g-m-a-i-l or g-o-o-g-l-ePlay (which is the original source for every Android cellphone, that even Huawei, XiaoMi a.s.o. are using), i maybe would be wiser. I know most of the chinese population are using third-party markets, but the original OS they are using everyday is and will be G-O-O-G-L-E Android! As for the stutterer, i'm not paranoid, just want avoid a higher working load for 5-毛*钱 fraction scanning goKM. :)

His visit would explain the machine guns and police at the highway toll gates.

The c-e-n-s-o-r-ship here got to a level simply ridicoulous.
I understand how these top politicians don't care about the outside world, but given how we are connected today, their credibility is more and more at stake vis-a-vis with the international community. The legitimacy for the use of this type of power by these people is simply obsolete and out of context.