If you're after cheese its a good idea to get a group of people together as metro mostly sells large quantities suitable for catering, unless you are really cheesy and can eat a whole kilo before it goes bad.

I think he means there's no Apple-owned store like the large flagship ones they have in major cities. Its true that the website needs a HK address and HK credit card but there are plenty of authorised apple retailers in Hong Kong and they all sell iphones. There are also plenty of unauthorised retailers selling iphones in the computer markets. Just make sure you get a proper warranty and you'll be fine. They are extremely unlikely to ship to Kunming. If you want to get one in Kunming you can buy from taobao or from places along yuanxi lu but you won't get any kind of warranty.

4500 RMB for what? 3G? 3GS? iphone 4? 8GB? 16gb? 32gb? without some specifics throwing a number out there is fairly pointless.

irrespective of whether this is a scam, a word of warning is advisable about the method the guy suggested for sending him money.

Don't ever send money by Western Union. It can be picked up anywhere in the world by anyone using the beneficiary name and password. You may think you're sending to someone in Shanghai but you have no way of knowing if that's really the case. Bank transfers are always much safer.

wow, this all sounds horiffic. I'm British and my wife is Chinese. We were considering going to visit my sister in the states some time in the next year. Is there really no point in bothering applying?

It is irrelevant that you are in Kunming on China Telecom. That is actually the point of a VPN. It will create a secure connection between your computer and a server in another country and every website you visit will assume you are in that other country.

Do a google search for VPNs and you'll find loads advertised. Almost all of them have a monthly fee but that's the price you pay for being outside the great firewall.

VPNs that are quite popular are strongvpn, witopia, 12vpn, and many more, just have a look around for a deal that suits you. You will need a foreign credit card to pay for it. There is currently no way to pay for this kind of service with RMB as far as I know.