@ Geezer: I agree about what you say about experienced capitalists. And your rules of thumb, I'll accept, probably 'work' for that reason. But as you say, they are a starting point - but surely they vary with the cost of 'labor' and other factors, and anyway the maximation of profit isn't the only goal? People I know who have run small businesses often become attached to the product of their businesses, the way they choose to produce it, as well as the profit they make from it (which does, you'll agree, have to do with the difference between profit and wages, not just something that comes after wages are paid) and to the environment (including the social environment, which obviously involves employees, as well as customers) they have created, and I wouldn't be too interested in frequenting a business where this was not the case. Seems to me this probably applies to most or all of the small Western-run places in Kunming that I know about, which do not strike me as mere 'money machines'.
@ Peter: I don't think I know of any Westerners here who feel seriously desperate, except perhaps when they first arrive and are unfamiliar with a lot of things here.
I appreciate Xiefei's comments and, since I started this thread, I'd like to point out that I did not mean to imply that anybody in particular is into serious greed. I have no idea what the margins might be - I meant what I said: "...merely an impression." I don't think we're producing dollar millionaires, and I hope not.
Location of The Park is on the courtyard of then Buddhist temple (now full of shops for tourists) on the island in the middle of Cuihu (see listing). I don't know how to join the wechat group. Notification of meetings happens on this thread, and is also usually entered on the calendar for the day.
I went with 3 other westerners to a Wa festival in Ximeng about 8-10 years ago - one of our number knew somebody who knew somebody, and the 4 of us got free hotel rooms (there couldn't have been more than about 5 other westerners at most there, and we were obviously invited so that the CCBC camera and other coverage would perhaps appeal to more foreign tourists). The festival was essentially a tourist show, very well choreographed and so forth, enjoyable, not 'authentic', with scores, perhaps over a hundred, of group dancers in a big outdoor amphitheatre which sat several thousands. Evening, in an indoor theatre, there was a play featuring the Wa, supposed to show their rise from ugly-barbarian savagery thanks to the arrival of PLA soldiers. Point is, this thank-God-for-the-PLA theme was embarrassingly overdone, reminded me of some of the more cardboard elements of dance of the Cultural R. period, and I almost walked out, as it seemed to me so single-issue and propagandistic that I felt it amounted to pandering to Han-cultural attitudes about the inferiority of the non-Han, especially the Wa - it was all Party propaganda about the end of headhunting etc, otherwise nothing really about the Wa. I wonder if this emphasis is particularly strong in such tourist performances concerning the Wa, given that they present easy targets for such a treatment. Yeah, I've read that certainly many Wa were indeed glad to see the end of headhunting, and I'm not necessarily disputing that it has been good that their long resistance, carried out from their mountains, to incorporation into a wider national society had finally come to an end back in the 1950s - however, the show I saw reminded me of the kind of thing that had once entertained the prejudices of 'White' people in the old American South, or in South Africa.
I take cloudtrapezer' comment, or anyway most of it. As for moving out of the city, another choice would be to use public transportation or a bicycle within it as much as possible.
If Beijing wants to promote this they'd better do something about all the bloody hukou problems that have contributed to different classes of citizenship and have fueled China's capitalist rise by providing cheap labor with little recourse, thereby enabling rather serious economic differences so that the Chinese economy now competes 'successfully' with that of other countries on the usual tilted table of global capitalim.
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.
Going remote for new year: Celebrating on the Nanding River
发布者I went with 3 other westerners to a Wa festival in Ximeng about 8-10 years ago - one of our number knew somebody who knew somebody, and the 4 of us got free hotel rooms (there couldn't have been more than about 5 other westerners at most there, and we were obviously invited so that the CCBC camera and other coverage would perhaps appeal to more foreign tourists). The festival was essentially a tourist show, very well choreographed and so forth, enjoyable, not 'authentic', with scores, perhaps over a hundred, of group dancers in a big outdoor amphitheatre which sat several thousands. Evening, in an indoor theatre, there was a play featuring the Wa, supposed to show their rise from ugly-barbarian savagery thanks to the arrival of PLA soldiers. Point is, this thank-God-for-the-PLA theme was embarrassingly overdone, reminded me of some of the more cardboard elements of dance of the Cultural R. period, and I almost walked out, as it seemed to me so single-issue and propagandistic that I felt it amounted to pandering to Han-cultural attitudes about the inferiority of the non-Han, especially the Wa - it was all Party propaganda about the end of headhunting etc, otherwise nothing really about the Wa. I wonder if this emphasis is particularly strong in such tourist performances concerning the Wa, given that they present easy targets for such a treatment. Yeah, I've read that certainly many Wa were indeed glad to see the end of headhunting, and I'm not necessarily disputing that it has been good that their long resistance, carried out from their mountains, to incorporation into a wider national society had finally come to an end back in the 1950s - however, the show I saw reminded me of the kind of thing that had once entertained the prejudices of 'White' people in the old American South, or in South Africa.
Popular night market locations closed, ban appears permanent
发布者Wouldn't worry about that happening, Lester - I've seen no indications of it around town.
Popular night market locations closed, ban appears permanent
发布者I take cloudtrapezer' comment, or anyway most of it. As for moving out of the city, another choice would be to use public transportation or a bicycle within it as much as possible.
Premier Li Keqiang visits Yunnan, stressing anti-poverty measures
发布者umm - capitalism/
Premier Li Keqiang visits Yunnan, stressing anti-poverty measures
发布者If Beijing wants to promote this they'd better do something about all the bloody hukou problems that have contributed to different classes of citizenship and have fueled China's capitalist rise by providing cheap labor with little recourse, thereby enabling rather serious economic differences so that the Chinese economy now competes 'successfully' with that of other countries on the usual tilted table of global capitalim.