There are good English teachers and not-so-good ones here, but how is it that "background criminal checks" and your simple statement that some "should not be trusted with being in the company of your children" (what makes you say this? Has there been some upswing in English teachers with criminal backgrounds messing with young kids?) add up to you being a good one? Please point out a single incident of this great danger you are warning Kunming parents to avoid.

@Alex, I rarely eat at high-end Chinese restaurants and I've eaten at continental buffets maybe 3 times total in Kunming, although I eat at western restaurants maybe twice a week (very often Salvador's). I've been here more than 3 years, and I usually eat at little local places, but it's not a matter of having figured out 'which ones' don't make me sick, it's just that I know well that most places do not make me sick - and yes of course I would stay away from those few that have, although I can only think of one in my neighborhood where this has happened. Last night I ate a really big meal with friends at a small open-front place on the outskirts of town none of us had ever been to before (6 dishes, large portions (huiguoro (very fatty), another pork dish (a bit spicey), a red bean dish, a corn-&-peas dish, a doufu dish and something else, with rice); all quite good, with 4 beers, for 3 of us - 103 kuai total for the 3 of us (in a student area), and there was more food than we could finish). The place was nearly full, and everybody looked pretty healthy. I feel fine today.
With the exception of people whose stomachs either can't adjust (perhaps you can't handle spices) or who haven't made an effort to get used to local food, the chances of getting sick eating at ordinary restaurants is very low - do you think I'd be intentionally making myself sick by doing so, for 10 years?
@Allpage: I think you've said it, although I don't think it takes, or has to take, 3 years to get used to local food.
@Tiger: I don't think bars often use tap water, but I haven't looked into it. Virtually all people in China boil the water they drink as a matter of course, and have been doing so for many centuries, and perhaps longer.

@Haali: It's Jon and I who have ordinary stomachs - apparently you are the one with the serious stomach problems (evidence: most people in Yunnan are not beset by such problems as you describe, or if so only very rarely). If this happens to you often then yes, you probably do have a serious medical problem and should see to it.

My feelings about Kunming are pretty much the opposite of Lightnin's, but I'll only add that I find the altitude a plus - since I got fully used to it years ago, which took maybe a week on the outside, I've felt better just walking around here than I ever did downhill there in the lowlands, and I don't think most foreigners here are bothered by it either. But that's personal and bound to be different for different people.

I understand what Daithi means about following people around, which I also find annoying, although otherwise I don't find the place unfriendly, and to my knowledge it's absolutely the best place to buy English-language books in Yunnan. They also have some in French and, I think, Spanish. I don't know what the reading foreign public would do without the place - the guy who runs it actually knows books well, reads them and has intelligent opinions about them, unlike, apparently, most of those who run or work in foreign language bookstores in this part of China. He is also a contact for local foreign-language writers and translators, and had published or arranged publication (through a Hong Kong connection) for a number of books. His goal, though it is not unusual, is to make money, which he'll tell you up front.