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Forums > Living in Kunming > moving to Kunming

@ newlaowai: Well, I guess I got that wrong. Y2000-2500 per month is indeed enough for rent. My flat (old building, 7th (top) floor walkup: bedroom; 2 glassed-in sun porches, to south & north respectively, the one to the south provides considerable heat when the sun shines, which is usually; sitting room with furniture; kitchen; small office; old-style toilet with shower; solar heated water - costs me Y1000/month, plus peanuts for gas & electric; I signed lease in early December. A particularly good deal, I think, but you can certainly find a place for less than Y2000/mo., but of course it depends on what you want to pay for.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Holding 10% of a salary as a penatly

Plenty of migrant workers have gotten ripped off, legally or otherwise, by both Chinese-run and foreign-run enterprises near the coast, where they have no union protection, legally or illegally.
If a school offers you a bonus, you can be sure that your regular pay is lower as a result.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Rice Terrace

Yuanyang is indeed worth the trip - very dramatic results of some centuries of work by the local Hani ethnic minority people - though you're only going to be here 4 days so I don't know what priorities may apply. Rice terracing, major or minor depending on slope and population pressure on the land and on the socio-economic status of the farmers vis-a-vis other farmers nearby, can be seen elsewhere as well (nobody goes off building rice terraces for the fun of it), but I can't think of anyplace right near Kunming (which is built-up and anyway pretty flat) where you will see anything dramatic.

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And it should be obvious that there are other ways, practiced in other countries, to swamp public opinion - ways that do not permit what I've referred to as 'free speech' above - one might hmm think of China in this way. Oddly enough, in some such places people are smarter about reading between the lines in the press, and in what people say, than they are in places where a level playing field is imagined. But I still prefer the formal guarantees.
Like I said, propaganda exists in many forms, but it needs power behind it to be effective, and that power can be in terms of law, wealth, or (as is the usual case) a combination of the two. I can't at the moment think of any place where this is not the case.

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@Geezer: When PC is used in nasty ways then I am against the nasty ways it is being used. But others use the same sorts of tactics, and the left in the US is not large, unless you are referring to US liberals, who aren't exactly a huge majority either.
Anyway, the problem with free speech in the US and many other places is not that speech is really restricted in any stringent terms, but that the mass of the media is controlled by huge corporate interests with fingers in many pies, dominated by advertising revenues, etc., and swamps public opinion with its points of view. Check out who owns major media outlets, and how articles are presented, buried, ignored or slanted by them. Many seem to think that papers such as the New York Times are somehow 'left', when in fact they generally merely present the views and promote the attitudes of sections of the owning class.
So when I speak of freedom of speech (and of the press), I don't by any means mean that it's all somehow open on a level playing field - I simply mean that there are plenty of formal, legal guarantees that say you can pretty much say what you want, even if you're not rich enough to be heard by many. This is indeed worth something, and it's important to make the most of it, no matter what your opinions, even though money and power weigh a hell of a lot more than your voice.
Yeah, as I've said, Yang seems naive to me too.

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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.

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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.

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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.