@bucko Got my云南省老年人优待证 (老年人卡) in 2010. And you are correct in that the老年人卡 works almost all the time. Some venues charge a reduced fee but all are free when you hit 70岁。A passport sometimes works and sometimes not.

It is not easy to get a 老年人卡 and without help hard to get around to the right places. The ride the bus free card is easy once you get the老年人卡. You need to be over 60 and have the right visa.

When I got my card in 2010, I was told I was the only white guy in Kunming to be issued a老年人卡。Glad to know someone else got one too.

Unless one marries into a Chinese family, it is unusual to be invited to join a Chinese family for 春节 festivities.

While in Beijing, nearly every Chinese I knew left town to go home. In Kunming, I was close to an extended family with three generations of English speakers and was asked to join them. Usually, I would head to Jinghong for three of four weeks so it was I going out of town.

My last 春节 I spent in Kunming with the family and it was great, but then, I had visited their several homes many times in the ten years I knew them. I felt honored to be invited again and again without obligation.

Another trollish inaccurate statement.

@JeanDP Bashing France is, sorry to say, not much of a sport. Your knowledge of French history is rather lacking. True to form, you post nonsense then react with trollish characterizations when presented with facts. Here are more facts:

French military deaths were .5% of the population including resistance fighters. US military deaths were .3% of the population.

Germany advanced into Western European countries in may of 1939. France signed and armistice with Germany in June 1940 after Paris fell.

JeanDP, it was you that introduced France into this thread. You, after a snarky comment, posted statements, ignorant statements, about the military prowess of France. Correcting your comments is not bashing France.

The French army, during WWII either was defeated by the Germans or flipped and collaborated.

The French resistance was persistent and effective but the French, the bit that made it to England, returned to France courtesy of the US and British Empire invasion in June, 1944.

To characterize the French army as fighting more than the US is ridiculous. In WWII France had 210K military deaths, US 407K and British Commonweath 580K military deaths.