I have been back and forth to Kunming over the past 6 years. When I came back this time, I was very sad to learn that my favorite hangout bafly was shut down. Other bars are also gone. Question: where do the few Kunming expats hang out these days? Any new venues to report on?
Well....there's the monthly Rotary Club meeting...
where and when?
Rotary KM advertises their events in either the Calendar or Classifieds sections. I haven't seen anything this year, but I've been busy, so you'll have to ask around. The German restaurant on Shulin Street (Paulaner Brauhaus?) has a variety of weekday specials with a hearty selection of beers and booze - you'll have to check their listings if they don't post them here, but they're listed in the LISTINGS section of Gokm. Finally - there's the Toastmaster's Club for meeting and schmoozing with other professionals, both local and international - also listed in the LISTINGS section (look for the tiny search window top left of LISTINGS AFTER you nav to the LISTINGS page.
If you'd like to improve your dance moves - there's Dangsters and few other dance studios and gyms.
Hidden Garden has happy hours regularly and there's an internationl youth hostel with a rooftop restaurant/garden which is pretty nice.
Finally - if you have a fat wallet - you can hang out at the intercontinental's bar upstairs and schmooze with travelers and locals alike with similarly sized corporate wallets and expense accounts.
I'm still waiting for Gokm to do an article on 5-star hotel bar hopping series.
If you like seafood-ish - you can take a drive out to Fuxian Lake Hilton and see if the cuban cigar bar ever got off the ground. Then either hang at the shoreline food vendors or schmooze deep inside a typical american 5 star upscale chain hotel.
I'm also waiting for Gokm to do a series on upscale Chinese 5 star hotel bar hopping...and restaurants. If you're accompanied, the intercontinental allegedly has a killer brunch - but everything's still recovering back to normal a bit more slowly since COVID.
