Many thanks guys! This is great news. Sometimes you just need a break from meat and junk food. Always feel good after a vegetarian meal, unless of eaten too much! Will check those out when i get over and give some feedback.

I want to try the Buddhist place on Hing Shan Dong Lu. There is one over in the Kundu area too, but I would not have any idea how to explain how to find it. My wife (who is Buddhist and eats no meat or fish but like many Chinese has learned to make a few compromises now and then) says it is connected to the one on Hong Shan Dong Lu. I am not a vegetarian but could say I am by about 80% of the food I eat. I love that style of food but I do not like all the places in town that are vegetarian. Trendy and pricey really. I think most of those places have buffets and that is the way to go.

We make our own meals at home and they are always meatless. We never buy meat but use that "faux" meat they sell some of the veggie places.

One situation I have run into is asking the cook not to add meat to my bowl of my tasty, mouth watering noodles only to get it with ground meat in it. When I complain I found out they do not see this ass meat for some reason. They think of meat as the bigger slices. Of course it is meat, but the dumb asses can't sort that out in their cro-magnon little minds. it is leap enough they can use tools in the kitchen much less realize that meat, even when ground up, is still meat. I just let them add the slices now and remove them.

Most Chinese vegetarians do not have those lofty principles western vegetarians do. Believe me, I know. I have eaten with many Buddhists of different types and I see it often. I only see this "my God, these vegetables were cooked in chicken stock!" attitude from foreigners. Guess it is that whole "meat is murder" attitude carried to some extreme. Saw it in Seattle all the time.

If you're serious being vegan (yawn) in Kunming then:

1) cook your own food
2) eat out at Buddhist restaurants and or temples.

That is it. Do not do like I some uppity ass foreign women did at Cacajia's once, and yell and rant about the dished not being strictly vegetarian. Standing up shouting and then having it sent back over and over (hope they like boogers and spit in their dishes cos' that is what happens here when you send food back with a bad attitude) That was embarrassing really.

if anybody is going to the local gutter oil diner and asking for vegan food they are delusional. You deserve the angst you are experiencing.

"We make our own meals at home and they are always meatless. We never buy meat but use that "faux" meat they sell some of the veggie places."

Yep, and the fact that vegans eat this faux meat stuff is an indication to me that there's something "off" about being a vegan. It's as though the meal is incomplete and needs to be completed artificially.

But I have to say there are some veggie hot dogs we pick up on bai long lu 白龙路 somewhere that are pretty darn good.

One pack of the faux meat I picked up near Yuantong temple tastes better than real meat, not that it's hard to beat what passes for meat at some Kunming restaurants