Without proper Official Being Papers you can't live anywhere - though you might ask around about the Canadian who stayed in Kunming FOR YEARS after both his visa AND HIS PASSPORT had expired - a local legend, and a true one. When he finally left he crossed three international borders illegally, over a period of about a year, before he decided to go back to Canada.

I guess he might be considered some kind of hero. However, I strongly advise against making such attempts.

@Magnifico: I just sit around philosophizing about it. However, my responses to Lightning are not philosophical and don't have to do with having or not having a family.

@Lightning: by 'foreign relationship' you must be referring only to relatively well-off westerners, right?
As for the mores of living with a Chinese woman, it's not that simple - times and attitudes are changing.
'Being milked dry' is not what always happens, but when the westerner concerned has more bread than the wife's family, it seems to me that helping to support them is not uncalled for.
I find your prejudice against 'a lower class of women' offensive.
What do you mean by 'Western Educated' and 'well educated'?

You won't be imprisoned although you are breaking the law. I don't see how it's selfish either.

Actually I'd say there are fewer sketchy parts of Kunming than there are in Paris, London, and almost any US city I can think of.

You may be right about the petty theft in Kunming - seems to me it's definitely true as concerns bicycles, but otherwise I'm not so sure about it (oh, the occasional lifted unguarded bag maybe) - could be right, but in my 11 years here I haven't noticed all that much of it, and I've never had anything stolen.