I have never seen an accident with a bus that I could clearly blame on the bus driver - bus drivers seem to be pretty good, and cabbies aren't bad, it's the private car drivers who cause the problems, and one reason is that most of them haven't been driving for very long. But yeah, there's little respect for, and little enforcement of, traffic regulations, which seem to be taken as suggestions rather than rules. However, I would rather put up with this behavior than with foreigners (read: westerners, for the most part) who go around being self-righteous. Right: the traffic could be better, but obsessing about it and getting all moralistic/legalistic about it is a sure path to the creation of a much more unpleasant social atmosphere.
I'm already depressed by air pollution when I see it - don't drive, or take taxis unless you need them.
Altitude of Kunming and Dali is about the same as that of Denver or Kabul, a bit more than half that of Lhasa. I don't know what this has to do with anything. However, it's possible to die from sudden arrival in Lhasa without acclimatization (airplanes, the train), though of course very few people do. Effect of altitude on the body works like this: the difference between sea level and, say, 1000 feet, is less than the difference between, say, 1000 and 2000 feet, or 6000 and 7000 feet - it affects the body along a rising curve, up to around 17,000 feet or so, after which the body can adjust temporarily (for a few months, but there begins to be a downhill slope around this altitude), if acclimatization is intelligently gradual (if not done you're taking a very serious risk) - but the human body cannot adjust permanently to altitudes higher than that, and there are no permanent human communities above that approximate altitude. I don't think altitude-caused depression in Kunming is anything to worry about, except perhaps for a very few individuals who have some particular physiological problem with it (acclimatization is weird - there are 25-year-olds who find it difficult and 60-year-olds who have little trouble). I haven't met anyone who's moved here from lower altitudes with such problems here, as far as they & I know - a good percentage of the population have moved here from lower altitudes, and it shouldn't have anything to do with being a foreigner. Speaking personally, I find this altitude makes me feel good (I'm over 60, but I acclimatized pretty well when I was in my early 20s too, although I grew up at 500 feet) - 6000 feet isn't really much.
Lot of bad driving in Kunming, it's not racist to point this out. Best to take the bus, bicycle or the metro, or walk. One good thing is that there is not much fast driving in Kunming, cf. the US, much of Europe, Thailand and many other places.
I guess what is meant by Kunming being a 'rural city' is that there are a lot of people moving to Kunming, and to other towns and cities, from the countryside.
Note practical functional adaptation to forest regrowth and re-use of land for agriculture practiced by slash-&-burn (swidden) mountain groups before their territories were restricted, which required re-use of same land in much shorter periods - and they knew, through their cultural history, that this wouldn't work, and said so - but of course the explosion of the human population made continuation of these traditional long-period of regrowth practices impossible. Now they are blamed for being ignorant and ruining mountain slopes (in China, Thailand, many places).
Fact is, there are simply too many people.
The Curmudgeon says: Maybe the Western dam experts criticisms of just about every dam in Asia are right.
In vis-a-vis arguments concerning fossil-based, nuclear and hydroelectric sources of energy, perhaps the shining truth behind them all is simply that this particular species of animal consumes too much damn energy for the good of the planet, including that of our particular species. Perhaps solar, tidal, etc. development will prove me wrong. In the meantime, walk, get a bicycle or ride the bus. Healthier and less socially divisive too.
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.
Kunming scientist works to change world with perennial rice
发布者Now THAT would be something!
Report: Communally owned forests hold key to healthier China re-greening
发布者Note practical functional adaptation to forest regrowth and re-use of land for agriculture practiced by slash-&-burn (swidden) mountain groups before their territories were restricted, which required re-use of same land in much shorter periods - and they knew, through their cultural history, that this wouldn't work, and said so - but of course the explosion of the human population made continuation of these traditional long-period of regrowth practices impossible. Now they are blamed for being ignorant and ruining mountain slopes (in China, Thailand, many places).
Fact is, there are simply too many people.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
发布者And note the comment about owners making money simply out of selling stock.
Human efficiency is an interesting concept.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
发布者And forget about air conditioning in a city where it's never needed.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
发布者The Curmudgeon says: Maybe the Western dam experts criticisms of just about every dam in Asia are right.
In vis-a-vis arguments concerning fossil-based, nuclear and hydroelectric sources of energy, perhaps the shining truth behind them all is simply that this particular species of animal consumes too much damn energy for the good of the planet, including that of our particular species. Perhaps solar, tidal, etc. development will prove me wrong. In the meantime, walk, get a bicycle or ride the bus. Healthier and less socially divisive too.