True - PR investment in tourist image does tend to lead to lying, direct or indirect, by private business as well as by local administrations - pretty universal - but faking AQI, as in the link you presented, is really too much.
Can't give you recent information, but in my past experience, in the US pool conditions and supervision is generally pretty good - meaning, well, I can't remember wanting to complain about anything beyond maybe the Ph was not right (too much chlorine), and that they were sometimes crowded. No real problems in Hong Kong or Paris either - I'm a fairly enthusiastic swimmer. Yes of course there must certainly be exceptions to 'good'. Your comment about your reading about pool conditions and supervision is very vague - where is it that all these pool conditions are so bad? And in comparison to pool conditions - where - England? What are conditions that are not 'poor'? Obviously nowhere is anything perfect.
Dreary to be reminded that this kind of thing happens - reflects serious social irresponsibility, especially in (some, at any rate) provincial and local administrations - hard to know how widespread it is, but my hunch is that it is not nearly rare enough.
Sh*t happens, choose your game, good luck to everybody.
Actually, what my friend was referring to was the way those of us from more northerly, wetter climates begin to think it gets cold and rainy here, after a few years - but cf. where?
Not sure how the Middles Easterners, Mediterraneans, Southeast Asians and Indians cope.
AQI and tobacco processing - interesting. I haven't had severe eye irritation in Kunming, but I don't live in the north.
I pay no attention to UV index.
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Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
Too bourgeois.
Really good pizza and steaks. The wine machine fuddles me when I'm a bit fuddled, & seems unnecessary. Good folks on both sides of the bar.
Ain't no flies on Salvador's.
Exploring history: Jianshui through the ages
发布者Jim's article is, as usual, excellent, but although he mentions renovations, perhaps he has left off a few that are really quite extensive. For example, there is a tourist street in Jianshui that has all the 'traditional' curved Han-style shop roofs you might like to see, but they were all built since the first time I went there some 10 years ago. More recently, the old South Gate has been built from scratch - wasn't there 10 years ago either.
The significance of the Confucian temple should not be missed - the conquerors of Yunnan were Mongols, with Central Asian troops, many Muslim. The fact that a Muslim ruler built such a large structure in this far-away province is a good example of the nature of the rulers: they were big supporters, not only of Islamic learning, but of Confucianism and Buddhism as well. And by the Ming Dynasty, if not before, the fact that this was the second largest Confucian temple in China, after the one in Qufu, the Kong (Confucius) family home in Shandong, is a clear statement of the attitude of the dynasty towards this frontier, Han-minority province, which had been very much independent, and under non-Han rulers, before the Mongols: This place is Ours now, and b'god we're here to stay!
And then note the role played by Lin'an (Jianshui) during the massive 'Panthay Rebellion' against the Qing (Man, or Manchu rulers), led by Muslims but with numerous Yi and Han followers, which went on for 18 bloody years in the 19th century...
Yunnan's history is unique, and it's fascinating.
$17 billion Chongqing-Kunming railway nears completion
发布者Train is as fast and more comfortable, I mean.
$17 billion Chongqing-Kunming railway nears completion
发布者Doesn't it cost more in terms of the planet? And not necessarily cheaper in personal cash terms either. More comfortable too, and not faster to Chongqing - 3 hours, the article says - how much time would you spend getting to the airport, boarding the damn thing, then sitting scrunched up, getting baggage, etc.?
$17 billion Chongqing-Kunming railway nears completion
发布者Seems to me this is a better idea than a lot of airports and air traffic.
Spring City's tallest skyscraper nears completion
发布者Good question, nnoble. My not-too-informed knee-jerk reaction would be to say no, but I'd be happy to consider any opinion that came with reasons.
Also the question: 'Does Kunming need this building...' makes me think of another one: who, precisely, is this 'Kunming' who either needs or doesn't need?