OK, Geezer, of course I don't know your health situation, I'm just saying that I've had a few health issues that were well taken care of at a public hospital here, and the prescribed meds were available. It sounds like your cardiologist was at a Trad. Chinese medicine hospital, is that right? I don't necessarily think Chin. Trad. medicine doesn't work, even though I don't understand anything about the theory behind it and what I do understand makes no real sense to me. I also think that there's a lack of 'quality control' in Traditional Chinese Medicine - some of the doctors and treatments may be useful and others useless but I can't tell which is which, so I don't go there.
Well, okay, maybe the particular prescription meds you want are scarce. My guess would be that if you consult a doctor at the Kunming #1 or #2 hospitals here you will be prescribed meds that at least the pharmacies inside the hospitals will have. I don't know about Beijing, but Hong Kong is closer and it seems to me virtually everything is available there, although it seems that, unsurprisingly, they don't honor prescriptions from doctors in other countries. However, seeing a doctor in Hong Kong to get a prescription is going to cost you a lot more.
Sounds about right, although I wonder how narrowly they are defining what is Mandarin and what is not - Cantonese and the several dialects of Fujianese are clearly not Mandarin and should be considered different languages, not dialects; as well as Tibetan, Uighur, Bai etc., but I wonder how they classify Kunminghua. The linguistic distinctions dialect/language are a bit fuzzy, but Kunminghua is certainly the same language, as are most other variations.
@culture: I think you'll find that only few people who can't speak clear Mandarin will be able to speak English at all - in other words, if you can speak some Chinese you'll probably be better at approaching their language than they will be at approaching English. At any rate, the task remains that of us foreigners, though local people who actually do know English fairly well often like to speak it with foreigners, despite sometimes an initial shyness.
Competitive eating contests here? You're serious, right? Hey, it's okay with me.
I'm still amazed, shocked & amused by the interest in fastfood hamburgers, though I may have had one last year or the year before, can't remember.
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.
Volunteers needed to help Lufeng schools
发布者Hope the real estate speculators and black-Audi-drivin mfs kicked in.