There's some sort of small scene out there but nobody from Kunming proper goes out there to have fun.

I like the show Top Gear, very well-produced to bring out the experienced pleasure of driving really fine cars, which are built for it. Of course it's necessary to be fairly rich and to be able to get away from city streets. It's a great advertisement for drawing people to this luxury.

@ Dazzer: the street committees were created to mind the business of everybody, not just of foreigners. My example shows that they don't mind my business much.

Some kind of handbook for foreigners was printed here years ago, by somebody more or less connected with foreign Christian workers or KIA or something, I think - was available at the Wicker Basket. Could be useful, don't know if there's a recent edition, though I thought the contents were a bit of overkill - explained just about anything imaginable that might be unfamiliar to somebody just off the plane.

@ Tiger: May indeed be the responsibility of the street committee to make sure residents register with the cops, in both Shanghai and Kunming. And things may have changed: over 10 years ago, when I first moved to Kunming, I didn't bother to register for a good 8-9 months and nobody bothered me to do so. Despite this, during my first 3 months I took a trip for about a month and forgot to shut off the water before I left, which leaked into the flat downstairs. When I came back the downstairs neighbor wasn't happy. I apologized profusely and she said well, okay. I got the water problem fixed and that was that.
Then a friend explained to me that if somebody broke into my flat and I called the cops they would not have to do anything, so since then I've been registering on time.

Once water leaked into my kitchen from the guy upstairs. I told him about it, he fixed it, and we were all good.

I have known foreigners here who have not registered and have been called on to do so - perhaps their neighbors, or local street committee, are the ones who mentioned it to the cops.
Anyway, it's no hassle and it's illegal not to register, and if you register, you're covered.
I have never once been hassled by neighbors here for anything. In over 10 years a cop came to my flat exactly once, after I had registered, to see my passport. This was at least 5 years ago. I showed it to him and that was it.