I found Tsinghua Bookstore to have the widest selection. Online stores such as amazon.cn dangdang.com and taobao.com are also fairly convenient. I know Dang Dang Wang and Amazon have the option to pay on delivery.
Taobao is useful for finding "imported" books. Though obviously not all of it is authorized or of the original quality.
If a visa isn't an issue, then definitely go for a tutor. A tutor will be much more flexible. If you live in the "north" (actually northeast Kunming) I can ask my neighbors if they know anyone.
My advice though would be just walk around your neighborhood. Older people in Kunming are usually friendly, especially if you have kids. Eventually you'll meet someone with basic English who can probably find a neighbor to help you learn Chinese.
I've heard good things about Keats from people I know, but with an infant son going to class will be more trouble than it's worth.
Tenwest I don't know much about as their price range was too high for me at the time when I took Chinese classes.
I had a very bad experience with Kunming College of Eastern Language and Culture. Their boss was only interested in taking my money, and trying to scare me into paying for another year of classes after breaking all of his promises... let's just say I paid for 3 semesters of classes, and only got one.
Most schools don't provide much support for teachers, and pay them hardly anything. The standard for language schools(both teaching Chinese, and English) in Kunming seems to be to sign up as many students as they can, find a teacher, and then throw them all in a nearly empty room. Then laugh all the way to the bank as teachers and students alike become dissapointed within a year.
If your family needs a student visa and don't want to go to school it's still possible to get one. I've never asked about the price, so I don't know personally. However, there are a few schools I know of that do set up a home-tutoring type deal. Your visa will still be throgh a school somewhere, so just make sure that school can be trusted. If you need help you can PM me, and I can give you a phone number, or email for more help.
The gas station near my wife's parent's home was burning toxic material. Thick black smoke, and we watched them throw everything and anything into it. Mostly waste material from remodeling.
We called the news, but nobody cared. I watched the news tonight and they spent 30 minutes reporting about a Porsche being stolen...
We took some photos, and a video on a cell phone. The quality wasn't that great though. I can upload it, or take better photos tomorrow if anyone knows someone who would do something about it? Maybe Sinopec has some big project in another country where their blatant disregard for the environment and people's health in Kunming would be embarrassing?
I bought a dell computer recently in China. The sales people said they don't provide the English version. Though I bought a cheaper laptop where you can't customise much, except the color. Their "business" computers might be a different story.
However, I did find out you can get a multilingual version (Chinese and English) from Dell in Hong Kong.
I've seen Windows 7 Ultimate OEM(Chinese, which is easily changed to English) version online for about 1,500 RMB in China. In the US I believe it goes for about $200 USD.
OEM version means there is no customer support, and I believe you must do a clean install.
If you're skepticle of buying software online in China(which you should be since 99% of businesses here use pirated software). Then my advice is have someone buy it abroad for you online, and then just have them send you the software key, and DVD if you can't get a copy.
No results found.
Cheese tasted great. Much better than other pizza joints.
Excellent salad bar. Hamburgers are usually ok. The fancier dishes were a little lacking.
Giving it a 4 stars for the salad bar. If you were going there for "fine dining" then probably best to go somewhere else.
The store also has some nice imported food(though obviously Metro is cheaper for some things). The freshly baked goods are nice too.
Seems to be pretty hit or miss. First time I went there the pizza and hamburgers were great. 2nd time the pizza was terrible, and the hamburger was ok. 3rd time the pizza was ok, but people were smoking inside by the time we left. Guess the no smoking policy is not enforced.
Not bad. Pretty much what you would expect, but expensive for China.
Expensive, but decent bread. Other places are better, but not bad if you're in a hurry.
American conservative group makes inroads into China's classrooms
发布者I don't think high schools and universities are going to have a week long session of role-playing. It will be just another pamphlet given to students along with the current material, and then likely never be discussed in class beyond a few minutes.
Besides that, discussing family values in high school and college is a wee bit late. Heck, in my rural conservative hometown we started studying sex education in 4th grade.
Another point is that the English should probably be "addicted to" and not "mentally dependent on"
Welcome to the new GoKunming.com!
发布者The layout seems a little unbalanced, but not bad. I think it's because some text that doesn't have it's own boxed in background seems lost, like it's just floating around. Forums need to be updated to have threaded posts.. a rating system would be great. Even if it would something as simple as marking posts as "troll/flame" or "off topic".
Yunnan news roundup
发布者I think the shortage of water is of usable water. I've heard that Dianchi lake is so bad that they can't even use the water for industrial usage. So I'm guessing, or at least hoping the water they use is ok for grass, but not for drinking... probably sewage water.
GoKunming Weekend Preview
发布者Hello Puppies!
Nice photo.
Kunming News Roundup
发布者haha... the schools "quarantine" is useless. Students regularly leave the school. There's even a path between the bushes where they leave.
Many students have already gone home. Supposedly they're all supposed to come back now and sit around to do nothing.
Plus they let everyone and anyone talk at the main gate.