HFCAMPO has a good strategy.
I would use tours and local guides to get an idea of the locality and ID places to photograph. Later, I would hire a driver by the day and bargain hard. If the driver suited my needs I would over pay at the end of the day for the good service.
@Stephen58 if you subscribe to the idea guanxi is all about gift giving or bribery then the answer is clear; guanxi will diminish.
If you subscribe to the cultural nature of guanxi, family/clan/village, classmates, or brotherly friendship, I think not as it is deeply ingrained into the culture.
I don't think Westerners understand the cultural aspect of quanxi. To admit the benefits of guanxi would result in the loss of mianzi.
In the process of servicing my US customers, I created misnzi for my Chinese contacts on the coast. I then benefited from guanxi from those contacts. When I came to live in China and stopped doing business, my usefulness, mianzi creation, declined while my Beijing and Shanghai guanxi persisted. When I moved to Kunming I quickly lost my guanxi as my eastern contacts had about zero guanxi in Kunming.
Chinese generally refer to doing business as 'cooperating.' With a relationship that does not provide mutual benefit in cooperation, business, guanxi fades.
I recommend this book:
"The Way We Think: Chinese View of Life Philosophy," Li Gang
ISBN 978-7-80200-411-5
Copyright 2009 by Sinolingua
中国人的生活哲学
李钢/编著
The first three chapters (1-Mianzi Outweighs All Else, 2-Brotherly Friendship, 3-Chinese Art of Conduct in Playing Mahjong) provide some insights. Most Western experts attempt to explain mianzi, 面子, and guanxi, 关系, in a Western context. Li Gang presents mianzi and follows with two chapters on relationships.
My conclusion is that guanxi is alive, well and thoroughly ingrained in Chinese culture and life. It is a major factor in Chinese business.
@Dudeson's: Somehow I do not doubt that you are quite knowledgeable on the flavors of human excrement and urine.
The Chengdu Consulate visits always seem to be fully booked. They allot three hours for appointments in Kunming.
No results found.
Good for quality, but pricey, hand tools.
Be aware they will push whatever they are selling. Some of the staff have no idea about the technical side of appliances.
I went there to buy a stove. I repeatedly told them I would be using bottled gas. They sold me a stove. When I went to my local gas guy, I learned there are at least three kinds of gas sold. Luckily, B&Q did not deliver as promised. I went back to the store and discovered they had sold me a stove they needed to be hooked up to the gas main. I got my money back.
The sales lady was almost in tears, 没有问题！I don't know if it a safety or design issue, but I would think B&Q would know and care.
Last week had an 8:45am flight.
Subway starts at 9am. I have no idea where to catch an airport express bus. Eight taxis refused to go to the airport. After almost an hour standing on Beijing Lu took a black taxi, this dude drives slower than my mother, 120 yuan.
Flight back was delayed so I learned the subway stops running at 6:10pm.
Getting a taxi back was easy, more taxis than customers. Taxi was 87 yuan including 1o yuan toll, airport to Beichen area. Yes, he took a longer route than necessary.
Kunming imagines being a gateway for international travelers. New airport but hard to get to and from it.
World Class Airport, NOT!
Tonight "Peacock", a performance by Yang Liping (杨丽萍), to begin her world tour, 8pm, 100-1680 yuan at Yunna Haigeng Auditorium.
Saw this lady perform at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, in California, in 1995. Quite a good and interesting show.
I'm going to try to make it.
Not so good. Kimchi had a very sour taste. Other food was nothing to brag about. I don't think I would go back.
This bus station is not located as indicated. It is further North!
Getting Away: Guandu Old Town
发布者Interesting place. Tagged along with some folks and got a few good photos. It seemed to be a trek to get there, 4 buses, and about an hour in time. But then, we didn't take any of the buses Chris mentioned.
The place is quite large. Lots to see and explore. Eating would be no problem unless you are paranoid about eating in China. On the food street there seemed to be a lot of English words in the signs.
We were there last Sunday and it was pretty hot but water and other drinks were easy to buy. It was pretty crowded with few foreign faces.
It is a bit far by bus but worth the time to experience something a little different.
I will go back on a cooler day.
Kunming orders English added to outdoor signs
发布者Just don't use the word Apple on your sign.
Kunming's Red alley: Jiexiao Xiang
发布者@chris
Right you are! Damn homophones. This is why we need your expert guidence and direction.
Thanks Cris.
Kunming's Red alley: Jiexiao Xiang
发布者I gotta agree with HFCAMPO, I seem to a lot of digging to follow up on some interesting locations.
I found this place over two years ago while wandering around taking photos.
It is off of Huashan Dong Lu, 花山东路, on the east side of the street. The entrance to the lane is a flight of stairs going down. You can see quite way down the xiang but the museum is not noticeable from Huashan Dong Lu. You got to go down the steps and look for it on the left side as you are heading east.
Bus 92, going north, stops quite near the entrance to the xiang. It is pretty close to Yuan Tong Si, across the street and to the east of the temple you will find Huashan Dong Lu.
Kunming facing age crunch
发布者As one of the few laowai, perhaps the only White one, that has an AiXin card, I gotta tell you the new 2 kuai buses were not well publicized therefore a surprise to us old folks. My young Chinese friends also didn't know of the new service.
To EnglishTeacher: Your perception of 老年人 is a little weird. On crowded buses few give up their seats. I have never, again, never saw a 老年人 get a seat without expressing thanks. Usually, when someone gives up a seat for me, it is another 老年人. Shame on you. Go back to Beijing where rudeness rules.
I do think the 2 kuai bus is a good idea. I don't mind waiting for a free bus. The one time I did pay to get on a 2 kuai bus no one gave up a seat.
Hopefully, You guys will get to be old, with aches and pains, and will endure being shoved out of the way by some healthy dude, or dudette, so he/she can sit.
Not getting a seat on a Kunming bus is a function of the large number of people that use the well run system. 老年人 are only a marginal part of the problem and the bus is the only way many 老年人 can afford to get around, free or not and with or without a seat.