Has been the wettest year I remember in 12 years. However, this is not monsoon India - never rains all day - and it should let up a bit beginning about now.

@ Peter: I stand corrected - actually, I haven't been to Spain since 1980. Anyway, the mixian I usually eat is 9 yuan.

@ Napoleon: Valid point, but I think it applies to foreigners within those borders as well, and to a great number of people within many other borders. Borders, like other categories assumed to be set in concrete and to function as barriers, form boxes - good idea to try to think outside them (living outside them, of course, is a bit more difficult).

@ Michael: Seems to me that companies' primary mission is to make a profit for those who own it - providing products, services and employment is just the means. I've never heard of revolutionary corporate leadership, and doubt if either those staying or those leaving will find it anywhere - but then I also doubt that many expats are looking for it anyway. However, I appreciate what you have to say about how companies use their employees - middle management and mid-career types as well as the average employee.
@ Peter: Glad you like Spain, so do I. However, although I haven't been to Spain in awhile, it's hard for me to believe that food is cheaper there than in Kunming. As for India & Southeast Asia, food safety and pollution are issues there too, and my stomach, anyway, is okay here, and Kunming pollution isn't as bad as many places in India, or in Bangkok either, I'm told - could be worse here (probably will be, it's been getting worse over the past 12, and more rapidly over the past 6-7, years - blanket appreciation of 'Progress', rather than selective appreciation, largely the cause - damn the advertising/propaganda industry). My point about India is the space it can force expat heads to face up to after years in China, and that Indian headspace is significant because of the numbers of people involved, even if not considered in terms of the values that it has - many of us already have a reasonable working knowledge of generalized western headspace (though don't get me wrong, I appreciate the Spanish particularities. And the paella too.)

As for China, I'm never quite sure why you seem to think that something is about to hit the fan here and that we'll all be in particular danger here - yeah, it might, but then there are fans whirling all over the world.
Anyway, Alice, KEEP YOU HEAD, as Gracie Slick used to say...

Michael: Very interesting post - plenty in there that makes sense and also some that goes beyond what I imagine I know about. However:

Glad to hear it's not 'traditional warfare' (I assume you are referring to economic competition/warfare) - so what is it, social responsibility? What about that profit thing?
And you talk about China going through 'the same' processes as the US & Japan - are you pretty sure that they will be 'the same' in China, and with the same kind of result and basically 'the same' kind of resultant society? I see things crashing within the US, as well as on a global scale - so a further question is: do we WANT more of the same?
As for leaving China, I'm getting more interested in half-year-here, half-year-there (perhaps northern Thailand), but without setting up & running 2 houses/households.