Just a friendly warning to any and all reading this thread to BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL about combining anti-depressant drugs with other recreational drugs (including but not limited to alcohol).

There are plenty of repair places, but only one licensed Apple repair place.

If you are in warranty, you want a licensed place. If you are out of warranty, for a simple job like replacing a hard drive, I wouldn't worry. The only issue with replacing a hard drive is that you also need to replace the operating system, and cheap shops may not do that properly or at all.

There's also the budget option of beg/borrow/stealing apple screwdrivers and opening it yourself, which is basically what most repair places do.

Overall, given that you are asking the question, I would recommend considering the licensed place. There's one in the middle of town, and their used to be one on 121. I've been to both of them, the one on 121 was in my opinion poor in service, speed, parts and customers. I complained and it seems they have been de-listed.

The one in the middle of town, which I have used multiple times and always had good experiences with is behind Starbucks in Jingying Plaza on Huguo Lu.

You are best to turn up exactly when they open as the queue gets long really quickly (most people are repairing phones).

Their address in Chinese...

新亚－昆明店
云南省昆明市五华区威远街168号昆明金鹰购物广场Ｂ座1楼L1-01号
昆明, 云南 650000
0871-68184199/64644199

... you should probably call first and ask when they open, as unfortunately the website doesn't say when that is. Good luck.

There are a lot of road bikes nowadays. One common thin tyre route is (partly or fully) around Dianchi Lake. Another is a trip to Fuxian Lake, then around the lake. Another is northwest to Fumin, then southwest to Anning via the hot springs, then back to Kunming. I have most of these (everything except the bottom of Dianchi Lake), and you shouldn't have any problems on a road bike. That said, Chinese road surfaces are not up to foreign standards of repair so be careful - you can easily cycle in to a huge hole that isn't marked and wasn't there yesterday.

TC's suck. Just use ATMs and stash some higher value foreign notes.

Yes - I believe they are too expensive, but agree that this is echoed in local establishments.

Retail food prices in major Chinese cities are largely at western levels (or close, often higher), whereas standards of management, service, cleanliness, and choice have rarely kept pace.

Whereas you can have a white tablecloth dining experience in Chengdu, Shanghai, Shenzhen or Beijing, Kunming currently has zero (really, zero) options, but is happy to present many inferior places in the same price range.

I believe this situation is partly because of the following:

A) Macro-economic influences in the domestic economy, such as significant real inflation, rising wage expectations, lending, credit and the longer term trends in rising ingredient prices.

B) Cultural norms where very high food expense as a percentage of income is considered normal, where living in the moment is considered normal, and where dining is considered a group activity with 'face' elements.

C) A significant breakdown in multi-generational residential situations in preference to single generation residential situations, even bachelor apartments.

The hive mind 'go with the flow' mentality is fine until things break. I believe there will be a correction in the near future, because the situation is currently borderline ridiculous.

I mean, frankly, apartments are way cheaper and nicer in Bangkok (a place without Chinese visa issues), and many western meals are cheaper in Sydney (which is known to be an expensive western city). What does Kunming really have to offer to justify these prices? Not a great deal. A lack of adequate competition, perhaps.

If I were running a conventional food retail outlet right now, I would be worrying.