I'll say. It doesn't take a a leap of faith (maybe just a series of smaller leaps, and a well-secured front-pocket carry bag?) to realize: it's amazing what kind of gymnastics those Australians are capable of. I'm all for innovation across the pond, but they've clearly taken the lead here. The competitors are merely sheep.
China Eastern may be crap (and their website has massive security holes, too), but:
1. They fly direct to Paris and Chiang Mai, which nobody else does.
2. Their Tuodong Lu ticket office have a separate international section which is usually always vacant and makes booking more pleasant than usual.
Both Lijiang and Dali are awash with violence and gangs, often police are part of these networks. (Sources: Personal experiences, local business proprietors, long term residents).
Lijiang is widely known to have a high proportion of involvement by North East Chinese gangs, who are known China-wide for their thuggish nature and migrated there on mass about a decade ago.
It is unfortunate that China has such a relaxed attitude to local corruption.
Perhaps the telephones of police and those who interact with them regularly (eg. spouses, immediate family) should constantly be big-data (metadata) surveilled by the state to help detect corruption and create transparency.
In addition, any and all visitors to and interactions with high ranking police at their place of work should be video surveilled by out of province authorities. This is not technically difficult.
PS. When you get the bus to Guanlei from Jinghong consider overnight in Menglun, which has a fantastic tropical botanical garden. They also have really yummy mushroom mi gan (flat rice noodles) near the bus station.
I took it in about August last year.
The number of vessels depends heavily on the season (water level) and there isn't always a vessel waiting.
To be sure, you can call the immigration staff in Guanlei and they will tell you how many vessels are available, since arriving in Guanlei and having to wait a few days for a boat would not be much fun. It should cost about 300-400元/person for a private room with cooked meals included. It is a really nice trip.
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@nailer is being unfairly dismissed: they are certainly fallible. At one point they were well managed and the only game in town, and their outdoor bar had an interesting social vibe. Recently, none of these is the case (was given a bad bill to the tune of ~300% - no managers present and a subsequent complaint resulted in a less than ideal outcome, many more places are now open, and the outdoor bar is closed). Unless you are specifically seeking faux-Americana (often far better examples elsewhere) or two degrees removed faux-Mexicana, there's little reason to go there. How come French Cafe can serve a great sandwich for 24元 but Sals requires 50元 for a pretend-exoticized nibble? Certainly the business will continue, but the hey-dey is clearly gone. Romaniticizing the past aint gonna help. E-waste recycling by shipping (non carbon neutral) junk across the country? Puh-lease. Garbage processing people here recycle anyway! I applaud the ethical stance of one of the managers, but the place has frankly lost its mojo.
Hands down the best draft craft beer in Kunming. On top of that, very reasonable prices for food and other drinks (especially wine).
Called the number provided on a Friday at 2:15PM while a 10% discount was advertised "on Friday and Saturday" (listed in GoKunming specials).
A Chinese person answered the 'English' phone number in Mandarin then explained in broken English that you need to order 3 hours in advance. (Subtext: As their business is so slow)
Grumble. False advertising. Waste of time. Seems 100% Chinese run. Probably bad pizza.
The listing here is wrong! Teresa's are not defunct, they are just back to being one store instead of two stores on Wenlinjie now! They are still in business, still answer on this phone number, and are still delivering! Points for consistency, it's been years! As of right now, it's 68元 for the more toppings vegetarian at the largest size. They will do thin or thick crust. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but I always used to find adding dried chilli powder and some extra salt brought it up to tasty. Might go for a dash of Sichuan pepper oil to spice it up this time around. (You know you've been in China too long when...)
I also had a bad experience here recently.
Honestly, I wish them the best of luck, but I do think the staff are poorly managed and the owners have the wrong attitude and a clear lack of experience in service-oriented business. While the pizza is OK, everything else I have tried (including overnight stay) can be had cheaper and better elsewhere, and the pizza at Roccos is better in my opinion. The service has always fluctuated between acceptable to don't care.
Since they don't have their situation resolved yet, and it has been a few years, I have made the decision not to go there anymore or send anyone else. It's just not worth the hassle, given the crappy location (masked as private or lost). Better pizza with more quiet and privacy on Roccos' terraces.
2012: The Year in Review
发布者"Cavemen were found near Jianshui" .. actually the location was more like "the lower Yunnense Red River" .. south of the river .. closer to Dienbienphu in Vietnam.
Bronze Age relics unearthed in Baoshan
发布者Err make that 1700-1800 years. Damn lack of edit feature. (Boo, hiss!)
Bronze Age relics unearthed in Baoshan
发布者This is mostly interesting as because Baoshan is the southwesternmost major Han outpost referenced in early Chinese historical literature.
Unlike Sichuan, whose great plain was fairly definitively under Han dominance some 1000 years earlier, Yunnan's real Sinification really only began under the Yuan dynasty (1271 or so onwards... though a few decades later would see the beginnings of real change in Yunnan). Despite early references to Han parties reaching Kunming and other parts of Yunnan, evidence of serious Han cultural impact on Yunnan remains limited before that period. And this is *500-600 years* before that period.
For those interested in history, I'd highly recommend reading the Chinese accounts of the Yi people of the Sichuan/Yunnan borderland (still dominating most of far-southern Sichuan, ie. pretty much everything south of the plain), including how their queen wisely facilitated the passage of the Mongols in to Yunnan by brokering introductions to neighbouring ethnic groups to avoid a bloody war. While the Han have erected a "Museum to the Living Fossil of the Yi Slave Society" (or something equally condescending and dismissive) in that part of Sichuan, a quick trip around reveals just how important they must have been in the past.
The Ailao people would have been a known neighbour of the Yi to the west (via the Dali and Lijiang plains), as would have been the Naxi of Lijiang, the nearby Mosuo and the Tibetans to their northwest. Tai peoples migrated ever-south from southern Sichuan onward to the tropics.
This compounds archaeological interest in Yunnan, which this year saw the discovery of the Red Deer Cave People just south of the Red River that drains Yunnan's southeast (from about Dali, down to Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam), and the earliest Yunnanese stilted house ruins were recently discovered at Jianchuan (on the old Lijiang-Zhongdian road, just south of the big bend in the Yangtse river southwest of Tiger Leaping Gorge), and are also a major recent archaeological find.
Yunnan, along with neighbouring Myanmar (whose internal issues have caused problems with archaeological research in post-colonial times), probably form one of the most exciting archaeological zones in Asia for the coming decades. We live in interesting times!
Getting Away: Lincang
发布者I second Cangyuan and Mengding.
Cangyuan has loads of neolithic paintings nearby, some traditional Wa villages, and a huge cave.
Mengding has the only maintained ming-era administrator's home I'm aware of in all of Yunnan, and it has been turned in to a great little museum.
AirAsia in Yunnan - better late than never
发布者Interesting. In Bali right now, just checked that out, couldn't find a fare that cheap from KL to KM over the next couple of months. Maybe expired or sold out already or just a very short-range of dates. Anyway, good to know there's flights.
I know an absolutely exceptional and cheap hostel in KL... folks interested can email for details.