@alienew

Not "they."

Most of us stand on your side or not care. For me, I've never once upvoted or downvoted anyone. For starters, I've yet to see the buttons. Perhaps my add-ons are blocking those features.

Fyi, it's pretty easy to use VPN and create multiple accounts with disposable emails, which many of us suspect a certain member is engaged in. But we won't call out who because it's childish. One can easily create 10 accounts, but why bother with such triviality and time-wasting.

In short @alien, don't feel like the rest of us disagree with you. Stay cool.

You wouldn't need a few years to navigate popular matchmaking websites like Jiayuan.com, which is more suitable for marriages than ONS like other apps. In fact, you wouldn't even need a week.

Since you're learning Chinese, this is a great opportunity to learn functional written Chinese. The common terms cross-over with many websites across the internet; words like "登记“ (sign-in) or "注册" (registration), "邮件" (email), "年纪" (age), stuff like that. Get your Chinese friends to help you with the signup process which could be fun as well. Think of it as a great learning material. One stone two birds Plenty of useful browser extensions/add-ons that help you translate and pronounce.

When you upload your picture and fill in your bio. It's best to introduce yourself in English. That way, you'll get English language responders. Of course, you can easily gauge their English proficiency by their responses. Their profile and life pictures will showcase their ethnicity per your preferences.

Since you're a woman, you'll receive hundreds of replies a day. That's assuming you don't upload a picture of an old witch. But if you look like one, some ogres out there may want you to cast a spell on them. Anyways, you won't have to pay. Extra features on Jiayuan that connect members are usually enabled and paid for by the men. The vast breadth of choices, as filtered by your preference settings, optimizes your probabilities and saves time.

Chinese guys from other cities would even fly to meet you if there's a genuine spark. That's well known. But that wouldn't be necessary as tens of thousands of bachelor men are available in Kunming alone on Jiayuan. Wechat exchanges and meetups ensue. Simple.

Lots of couples meet one another online nowadays in our smartphone era. Not stigmatized like before. Many end up getting married and starting families. This is also well known in the grapevine.

Godspeed Bernhard, sounds like an adventure!

Check out GoK's blogs regarding cycling across SE Asia from Kunming:

www.gokunming.com/en/blog/?search=cycling

Good luck on finding a bike & equipment! In the "Yunnan craft products" post I mentioned Taobao's flea market if you're able to read Chinese.

If no luck, Kunming bike shops may rent out or have their hands on old ones which you have to negotiate for:

Xiong Brothers ("Fat Tyre Fun, Kunming's oldest cycling club"):

www.gokunming.com/[...]

here's another one:

Pegasus Cycling

www.gokunming.com/en/listings/item/33109/pegasus_cycling

Btw, your capital city "Paris of the East" was beautiful & quaint, and the Mozartkugel were yummy!

@herenow wrote:

"I'm especially interested in fabric items (e.g., shawls, scarves) along the lines of the colorful clothing worn by women from Yunnan's ethnic minorities."

Hence the importance of reading in full context ;)

namaste bump