@ Alien - You deserve this:

One of the sad and unfortunate things about your postings is the latent insecurity and bitterness that you display. Its so obvious that, by now, everyone who has read such posts from you knows this part of your soul. Even those of us who have strong beliefs and opinions about certain topics, usually have the sufficient "right brain" functions needed to suppress reckless and irresponsible blather. Many of us have found that people who speak in such cavalier terms are often attempting to compensate for deeper inner insecurities. How better to do this than try to come off as some sort of half-cocked world adventurer?

Well, Alien...I've been traveling internationally for almost 30 years...almost entirely for work. Moreover, I've had to work and survive in some places that were not only different, but dangerous. (Think war zone.) By this, I mean lots of places where it wasn't an option to sit on a bar stool in an expat bar, wiling away the hours in a semi-inebriated state. So you can step off the soapbox about newbies, junior. I doubt you know anything about the world I described.

What is really pathetic here is how much of a Western apologist you have become. Your entire bent here seems to be oriented around embracing a lifestyle that even the Chinese don't want for the long-term. They are employing every method of urban planning to essentially clone the West here. Its going to happen sooner than you think. Once the subway is in and the street traffic is less congested, Kunming will adopt the same traffic control measures that the 1st and 2nd tier cities have. At that point, Kunming will look more like Las Vegas or Seattle. As for you ridiculous criticism of American car ownership, I have some news for you, junior. China has the fastest growing auto market in the world, and within 10 years they will probably surpass the U.S., in car ownership. The U.S. lifestyle requires more use of personal cars because of the way our size and the ways cities are constructed. Guess what? China is headed the exact same way. Anyone flying into Changshui can see the urban sprawl, rolling over the landscape. No, my friend...your diatribe on things American has no place in China. Both the Central Government and the Chinese people are racing toward the American model. More and bigger...in houses, cars, and everything else. It may be fashionable for someone born in a Western nation with all of these things to adopt a phony air of provincialism. But, where will you be in the months and years to come when you discover that the object of your pseudo-idealism rejects your views. Pretty pathetic.

The posting I'm writing here is not about an exercise bike. Its about the kind of arrogance and stupidity that insecure people like you employ to compensate for your own emotional shortcomings. If you kept this to yourself, no one (least of all me) would care. But, when you expel this blather in the form of reckless and irresponsible advice to unknowing people, that's when you need to get stomped on.

By the way, I had three cars back home - a convertible, a truck, and an SUV. (I needed them to get between my home in the city and 3 pieces of property in the country.) Also helps when you are building things, as I was. I miss them a lot. :)

It's too bad you can't buy Chex cereal (or, something comparable) by itself. Chex party mix is one of the most easy things in the world to make. Its also dirt cheap, if you can find the ingredient for U.S. prices.

The green and yellow/orange place that Silvio refers to is the Xinya Dichan Real Estate company. As he mentions, they are all over the place in Kunming.

Thanks for the input, folks. I followed up on many of the ideas you've offered. Looks like 800 RMB is a nearly unbeatable price to pay for this bike I found. (It's actually much nicer than some higher priced models.) The shipping cost and uncertainty factors make this a no-brainer.

It actually feels a lot like the spinning bike I used at my gym back home.

Thanks for all your help!

Shyam

This is an interesting subject for me because I'm in the process of creating a China-based clientele for my business. The biggest single element is that Chinese businesses can't pay the Western rates for the type of consulting services that I do. So rate adjustment is necessary in this market. But, determining a "fair rate" is more complicated. I'm using the cost of living as my baseline.

In most industrialized countries, it is ideal to use no more than 25% of your income for housing. (Anything over 35% is considered pushing it.) Another 10% should go toward health and insurance. So, you have somewhere between 55% and 65% of your income to provide for transportation, food, clothing, savings, and non-essentials. (In China, they save up to 40% of their incomes, so this would leave them between 15% and 25% for discretionary spending.)

If I used housing as my benchmark data to determine the larger cost of living, the number would hang around 7500 RMB, per month. In terms of survival, you could get by on as little as 4800, but you will only be surviving at that level.